Torch
by Trackies
Summary: Life's not easy on a Pokemon Ranch. With a pack of growlithe on the loose, a herd of mareep to protect and a neighboring ranch causing problems for everyone, things get tough. Maybe, just maybe, things will change, but not today...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Nintendo. Gamefreak. Sex.

Summary: Life's not easy on a Pokemon Ranch. With a pack of growlithe on the loose, a fellow ranch owner causing problems and a herd of mareep to protect. Maybe, just maybe, things will change, but not today... Original Trainer fiction.

* * *

He heard the howling before his father's booted footsteps pounded up the stairs.

Like the whistling wind which blew through the cracks in the abandoned farm house across the river, the howls made the hairs on Toan's neck stand on edge. He lay frozen on his bed, one hand resting on his laptop's touch-pad as the howl drifted into silence. Funny, even the night seemed quieter than it was before.

The light from his laptop flickered across his face, but Toan watched the screen without really seeing the highlights of a furious battle between a charizard and a staraptor. It was still early days in the Indigo Plateau tournament, but it was still the biggest news in the training world at the moment.

Almost as soon as the first howl died, a second boomed and in an instant Toan jumped to his feet, almost knocking his laptop off of his bed as he did, and gazed out of the small, circular window above his bed. It was a full moon tonight - which was a blessing in itself - and not a single cloud graced the night sky, leaving the entirety of the fenced off paddocks and grassy plains illuminated by the soft, pale light.

_What the heck . . .?"_ Toan thought as he searched the plains. He doubted it was Grey, his father's mightyena. He was too well-trained and always stayed close to the house. The howls sounded like they were coming from near the river rather than close to the ranch.

Jets of fire suddenly lit up the horizon, streaming high into the sky before fading almost as quickly as they came. If Toan lay frozen before, it was nothing compared to how still he stood now.

One second passed, then two, before Toan remembered to breathe.

"TOAN!"

The shout from downstairs almost made Toan fall over as the world suddenly sped back into real time. Heavy, booted footsteps pounded up the stairs, each step growing louder and louder. Toan scrambled off of his bed, nearly sending his laptop flying once again in his haste. He all but dove for his discarded work jeans and pulled them on as his father burst through his bedroom door and flicked on the light.

His father was a tall man, with broad shoulders made from a lifetime of working on the ranch. His lined face, usually quick to smile and laugh looked worried now. That was enough to get Toan's stomach churning with nerves.

"Garret Tully just called," his father said quickly. "He and Jessica were out mending a fence by the falls. They were just about to leave when they saw Tyler Frey's lairon chase that bloody pack of growlithe onto our land. We need to get out there and bring the mareep into the paddock by the barn before the growlithe track them down."

He didn't know what his father was angrier at: the Freys and their next-to-wild lairon, or the pack of growlithe which had been terrorising the seven ranches on the plains for more than a month now.

Toan's mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out. He was old enough now to know what would happen if they lost that herd. They were relying on the revenue the mareep wool would bring, not to mention how much money the herd was worth. He swallowed and found his voice, "I was looking out the window," he said, pointing, "They're . . . there's fire," he finished lamely.

His father swore and strode over to the window. He looked out across the plains, his face growing darker and darker with each passing second.

"Get dressed, son," he said finally. "Garret and Jessica are on their way here now. As soon as they get here we're heading out."

"Okay."

His father strode out of the bedroom, leaving Toan alone. He quickly strode throughout the room, pulling his old work clothes from the basket by the door and scrambling across the floor to track down his second best pair of boots.

When he was dressed, Toan raced downstairs, taking the stairs three at a time. He wasn't surprise to find the entire household awake. If the growlithe's howls hadn't been loud enough, his father certainly had been when he cried Toan's name and stomped up the stairs.

Said father was on the phone, pacing back and forth by the front door. His brow was furrowed and he spoke in a hushed voice. He looked up at Toan came down the stairs and nodded at him. He raised two fingers and then tapped his wrist as though tapping a watch.

_Two minutes,_ Toan thought as he left the staircase and followed the lights and a pair of tired voices into the kitchen. The thick smell of brewing coffee made Toan screw up his nose as he padded across the hardwood floor to sit on one of the high barstools next to his little brother.

His mother smiled at him as he sat down, but the smile never reached her eyes. Instead worry filled every inch of her expression and the smile was only for Toby's sake. Jet black hair was hanging loose around her shoulders in thick ringlets. She was a slender woman, from one of the bigger cities in Hoenn – Toan could never remember which though. Toan had heard people say that his father had brought his mother back to the ranch to help bring some modernity and class to the small town community. John would just laugh at the stories and hold his wife close.

Unlike Toan, Toby took after their mother in looks, with the same black hair with the same wave in it. They even had the same deep brown eyes – slightly slanted, as was common in Hoenn. Toby's eyes were filled with excitement, though, while their mother's were filled with concern.

"Mum says Jessie and Mr Tully are coming over!" Toby said, grinning broadly.

"So I hear," replied Toan, smiling back. The smile was as fake as his mother's, but there was no sense in getting Toby as worried as the rest of them. His stomach was still churning with nerves – or it could have been anticipation. The two could be similar, right? "You gonna hold down the fort while Dad and I are out?"

His smile almost became genuine as Toby puffed out his chest and sat straighter in his chair.

"_He_ should be in bed," their mother said sternly as she reached over the kitchen counter to play with Toby's hair. "If you're up too late you might be too tired to go to the fair tomorrow."

The stricken look on Toby's face made Toan chuckle. Completely genuine too!

The little green numbers on the microwave clicked over to read 12:00am, Toan looked at them for a moment before breathing in deeply stretching his arms high above his head. "I'd better go see if Dad's off the phone," he said.

"You be careful out there, Toan!" his mother said to him.

"I'll be fine. I've helped Dad move the herd loads of times."

"I suppose," his mother admitted, "but never at night. And there's never been a pack of hungry growlithe roaming around either!"

Toan opened his mouth, but closed it again. His mother was right about that little point. His gut seemed to churn harder. "I'll be fine," he said after a moment, flashing a quick grin. "Dad'll be with me, and the Tullys. They've all got pokémon. We'll be fine."

His mother looked at him piercingly before nodding and turning to grab a coffee mug out of one of the kitchen cupboards.

Toan winked at his little brother and ruffled his hair, "Be back soon, Champ. Take care of Mum."

"Say hi to Jessie for me," Toby replied, still grinning widely.

"Will do."

As Toan left the kitchen he nearly walked right into his father.

"Oh, good," John said, "come on, we've got to move."

"Who were you on the phone to?" Toan asked as they walked out the front door into their moonlight gravel driveway. The massive sycamore tree next to the house somehow managed to cast a slight moon shadow which stretched out towards the barn on the other side of the driveway. Another howl split the air and a pillar of flame briefly lit up the western paddocks once again.

His father sighed and said with a distinct bitter edge, "I rang Stephen Frey to let him know what happened, like he didn't know already." His voice always got this way when he talked about Stephen Frey and his brood of children. "I shouldn't have bothered."

"What did he say?"

John looked at Toan as though he was judging whether to tell him, but at that moment a pair of headlights turned down their long driveway and began the trek towards the house.

"That'll be Garret and Jessica."

"Dad?" Toan asked softly.

His father sighed again. "We'll talk after the fair tomorrow evening, Toan. Some changes need to be made around here."

"About the Freys?"

"We'll talk about it tomorrow," John repeated as the Tully's Ute pulled up alongside the house. "Now's not the time. We have work to do, son."

The ute shuddered to a halt and the bright headlights flicked off. The driver's side door opened and Garret Tully stepped out of the ute. Like Toan's father, Garret Tully was tall and powerfully built. Tonight he was without his trademark hat, leaving his rapidly balding head exposed. But Toan didn't have eyes for Garret Tully. On the other side of the car, Jessica Tully poked her head over the top of the ute.

John walked up to Garret Tully and shook his hand, while Toan walked around the back of the ute and put on his 'winning' smile, "Hey there, Jessie."

"Sup, studly," Jessica Tully replied as she closed the ute door and grinned back at him. "Give us a hand with the bikes, hey?"

Toan glanced at the trailer on the back of the ute and for the first time noticed the two farm bikes strapped down tightly with bungee cord. "Why do you have the bikes?"

Jessica hoisted herself onto the back of the ute as she replied, "We're taking them down to the fair tomorrow. Dad figured we'd get them strapped down tonight so we wouldn't have to do it tomorrow."

"Fair enough," said Toan. He leapt up on the back of the ute and fumbled in the dark for one the bungee cord strapping a red bike with a custom headlight attached.

"Yeah, kinda glad we did it early now. We would have had to go back home otherwise. You and your dad would've had to handle your herd by yourselves."

"I guess we're lucky you and your dad are more prepared than we are," Toan chuckled. He leaned forward, pushing the hook at the end of the bungee cord out of the reinforced hole on the Ute and carefully let it loosen before resting it on the steel trailer. He looked over to see Jessie struggling to push the bungee cord strapping a dark blue farm bike loose out of the hole.

He stood there in silence for a moment, watching Jessie put her body weight into her task. At school, some of his friends called her "Jessie Flat Chest" or "Mosquito-bite Jessie". It was an exaggeration to say the least. Jessica didn't have that big a chest, but there was definitely a womanly swell under her red-checked button up shirt. She was lean and lithe; years of ranch work had stripped her body of most of her baby fat. It didn't matter what his friends said anyway; Toan thought Jessie was beautiful. She had the longest legs Toan had ever seen on a girl and hair had been so streaked by the sun it had a look that most other girls had to dye their hair to achieve.

Jessie looked up and caught him staring. "What, you just gonna watch me, Toan? Give me a hand."

Toan flushed, but nonetheless walked over to the bungee cord Jessie was having trouble with. Jessie stepped back, immediately dashing Toan's fantasy of their bodies pressed together as they worked to push the hook out of the catch.

"Dad did this one," Jessie said as she watched Toan clench his teeth and push. "He always does them tighter than I can manage." Another howl sounded across the plains, almost making Toan release the bungee cord he had put so much effort into freeing. It would not have ended well for his nose.

He flicked the cord off from the bike and set it down gently. Jessica was watching the horizon, her slender eyebrows furrowed. At least there were no more pillars of fire, which Toan supposed could either be a good or bad thing.

"I'll get the rest of them," said Toan as he moved towards the second cord strapping down the blue bike.

Jessica looked at him and smiled, "Cheers, studly. I'll set up the ramp so we can wheel these bad boys off of there." She left his side and began fumbling with a steel ramp which slid neatly under the cargo area when not in use.

After a few minutes of struggling, Toan managed to unclip all of the cords strapping down the bikes and had wheeled them down the ramp and onto the gravel driveway. His father and Garret Tully were leaning over the front bonnet of the ute with a map of the local area plus a good chunk of the plains spread out.

"Toan," John said from over his shoulder. "Grab the quad from the barn, will you? Lead Nelly out too, I think. The mareep will follow her into the river if she let them."

Toan nodded and started jogging towards the barn. To his surprise, Jessie quickly followed him. He had expected that she'd wait by the bikes, or look at the map with her dad - definitely not accompany him.

"I think our dads are planning something about the Freys," Toan said.

"Really?" Jessie looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "They'll probably just lodge a complaint with the mayor. What else can they do?"

Toan shrugged, "It sounded like more than that."

"Well whatever it is, I'm sure our dads have it covered."

"You're not curious at all?" Toan asked.

A pained expression crossed Jessie's face. "Of course I'm curious, but if Dad doesn't want me to know something, he makes sure I don't find out. Let's just get the quad out, okay?"

"Okay . . ." Toan muttered. He slowed to a walk then as they came up to the large sliding door at the front of the barn. It was unlocked, like Toan knew it would be. They only ever locked up the barn when they left the ranch. A warm orange glow welcomed them as Toan slid open the door and walked inside.

On the far side of the barn, where the walls and stalls were made of thick slabs of stone, an ampharos leaned over the stall gate to peer at Toan and Jessie. It let out an excited squeak and the orange light grew brighter.

"I didn't know you had an ampharos," Jessie said, her eyes wide.

"Yeah, a flaaffy from last year's stock evolved," said Toan. "We call her Nelly. Toby named her."

"Are you going to bring her to the fair tomorrow?"

"Dunno,"

Toan didn't bother switching the light on. Nelly's light was illuminating the barn well enough. Toan pointed at the quad bike covered by a light blue tarp inside one of the wooden stalls near the front of the barn. "Can you bring it out for me? I'll grab Nelly."

Jessica nodded, still admiring the ampharos. "Her fur has a really nice sheen to it. You guys have raised her well." She clapped Toan on the shoulder and busied herself with uncovering the quad bike.

Toan found himself grinning at Jessica's praise as he patted Nelly on the nose and murmured meaningless nothings to her under his breath. With a flick of his wrist he undid the deadbolt and sprung the metal gate wide open. "You feeling rested, Nelly?"

The ampharos looked at him with her big black eyes and seemed to nod.

"Come on, then," said Toan as he walked back towards the door. He could hear Nelly clomping behind him. Jessica was walking the quad bike through the doorway, though she did look over her shoulder to see if Toan and Nelly were on their way. Toan nodded and smiled back. They left the barn together, to where Toan's father and Garret Tully were waiting.

"Thanks, guys," Toan's father said as they walked out of the barn with the quad bike. Nelly wandered slowly behind them, her tail flashing with barely contained light. He tapped the steel ramp Jessica had left down looked at Nelly. "On the truck, Nelly; we need your help tonight."

The ampharos cackled with glee and clapped her small yellow arms together before bounding up the ramp to settle on the back of the ute. Her tail orb began flashing brighter, swishing back and forth over the side of the ute.

"You good with taking the quad, Toan?" his father asked, and after Toan nodded he reached into his jacket and pulled out a miniaturised pokéball and tossed it to him. "Take Ferret with you, we'll need him in case we run into the growlithe."

The pokéball was old and scratched from years of use. Toan clutched the ball tightly in one hand and looked back up at his father. "Won't you need him?"

His father shook his head, "I'll have Grey with me. He can keep up with the bikes easier than Ferret can. I have Roam with me too." He patted his bulging jacket pocket and grinned. "Chances are we won't run into the pack anyway, but just in case, yeah?"

Toan nodded and pocketed Ferret's pokéball. He had never been much of a fan of his father's buizel. It always squirted him with its vomit water when it saw him. The blastoise, Roam, was much better, although it was getting old now. Usually Roam liked to lounge in the barn or out in the sun. Occasionally it would wander out to the river, but it was never gone for very long.

"You ready, son?"

The churning in Toan's gut, a slow bubble before, suddenly grew in ferocity, but despite the bowel-wrenching Toan managed to grin, "Sure am."

"Good. Just follow Garret's truck. We've got to move quickly now."

With that, Toan's father pulled out one of the pokéballs from his pocket and released the Pokémon inside. A bright flash of white light blinded Toan for a moment before the sleek form of Grey emerged from the pokéball. His father's mightyena sniffed the air, one shaggy paw raised as it tasted the night. If it weren't for Nelly's flashing tail, Grey would have blended into the darkness perfectly.

"Come, Grey," Toan's father said as he strode towards Garret Tully's blue farmbike. The mightyena followed quickly, albeit with his nose sniffing the ground eagerly. Grey's ears suddenly perked up as the sound of the growlithe packs howls came drifted towards them yet again. Grey threw back his shaggy head and let out a blood-curdling howl.

Toan shuddered as he clambered onto the quad bike and started the engine. The _hum_ of the quad was quickly dwarfed by the sounds of the two farm bikes roaring into life. Jessie was sitting eagerly on the edge of the farm bike's seat, looking around with a wide grin on her face. It was exciting, Toan admitted, although any pleasure he would have felt at the situation was quickly suppressed by the concern for the herd and the pack of growlithe roaming free on their lands.

Grey suddenly bounded off down the driveway, Toan's dad on the blue farm bike close behind. The bike roared as John accelerated leaving a thick plume of dust in his wake. Garret Tully pulled around in a tight circle and followed in his ute. Nelly's tail-light was flickering rapidly now, swaying from side to side over the back of the ute.

Jessica flashed Toan a quick smile and goosed the throttle on the red farm bike. She spun around, managing to uplift more dust than John had and tore after Nelly's tail light, which had just reached the end of the driveway.

Another plume of flame shot up in the sky as Toan accelerated after Jessie. He glanced at it briefly before leaning forward and leaving his own plume of dust in his wake.

* * *

They drove full speed down one long pot-hole filled road and then turned down a dirt road for about twenty minutes before the brake lights on Garret Tully's flashed in warning. Toan eased up on the throttle and wished, not for the first time, that he had remembered to bring his riding goggles with him. His eyes must be as red as the brake lights!

He came to a halt next to Jessica, whose eyes were looking decidedly red-rimmed in Nelly's orange tail-light. In the paddock next to the dirt road the woollen bodies of over a hundred mareep were huddled together by the fence. Brief sparks flickered across the mareeps' woollen coats, almost acting as a warning to the pack of growlithe. If Toan strained his ears he thought he could hear the yapping and barking as they ran through the fields, spouting flame and howling at the sky. And the howls were louder than ever. Each time he heard one, the sound sent icy chills down Toan's spine. He figured that were only a few kilometres further down the dirt road.

The swift flowing river sat on the other side of the road. Aside from a few narrow fords and bridges, there was no other way to get across the river. How the Freys had managed to drive the growlithe onto this side of the river further up the track was a mystery to Toan. On the other side of the river lay kilometre after kilometre of grassy flatland. The Freys tried to claim the land as their own, but it was too big and too wild. It was the home to hundreds and hundreds of wild Pokémon, and not all of them were friendly either. Toan's father owned a small portion of the land across the river, but they never made use of it. The river acted as a natural barrier that Toan's father was unwilling to cross.

A jaw-clenching screech broke the quiet and the hum of engines as Toan's father unwound the chain linking the wide metal gate with the wire fence and pulled it back until it blocked the road.

Grey darted inside the paddock as soon as the gate was open wide enough for him to get through and began racing around. Soon he disappeared from Nelly's light and into the shadows.

The mareep began whining piteously.

"Gather your flock, Nelly," John said. The ampharos leapt from the back of the ute and wandered into the paddock. Her tail-light flickered excitedly and soon the sparks from the mareeps' wool were flickering in time to Nelly's light.

Garret Tully flicked the ute's high-beams on and very slowly drove into the paddock. He needed to turn the ute around to drive back, and the road wasn't large enough to u-turn safely.

The mareep were slowly gathering around Nelly and were sounding a lot calmer now, but whenever the growlithes' howled Nelly had to settle them down again.

Toan drove the quad forward until it was parked close to the gate blocking the road. He got off then, but left the engine running. He could hear Grey barking and snapping throughout the paddock as he rounded up loose mareep which had gone wandering off to the far flung corners of the paddock.

Garret Tully drove the ute out of the paddock and a little ways down the way they had come. He shut the ute door behind him and went to talk to Toan's father in a hushed voice.

Toan tried to edge closer to hear, but Jessica came to stand beside him with her red farm bike. "I think we'll have to invest in evolving one of our mareep," she said, nodding at Nelly.

He grinned and looked at Nelly rather proudly. "Dad and I were surprised that the mareep followed Nelly as much as they do. We didn't expect it at all, hey. We don't use her often to move the herd though. Ampharos aren't the fastest Pokémon in the world, and Grey does well enough." He chuckled. "Actually, Grey doesn't like it when we use Nelly. He gets jealous."

Jessie giggled, but the sweet sound was cut off abruptly as a deafening howl tore through the sky. Toan and Jessie both looked over their shoulders to peer into the darkness along the road.

"I hope they stay back there," Jessie said, biting her lip slightly.

Toan's gut churned in agreement.

They waited nervously as Grey rounded up all of the straggling mareep. The howls had all but stopped now, which only served to worry Toan more. If they couldn't hear the growlithe, they would have no idea where they were.

"Good work, Nelly." John said, after Grey came prowling back to his side. "Back on the ute now."

Nelly clapped her yellow paws together and waddled through the mareep. As soon as she was settled on the back of the ute again with her tail swaying hypnotically over the back, Grey gave a sharp _yelp_, and the mareep came scurrying out of the paddock and onto the road. Grey loped alongside them, keeping to their left so none of them would slide down the bank and into the river.

Then, disaster struck.

A pillar of flame so hot it might have singed Toan's hair shot out from the road behind the gate. A blood-curdling howl, loud and terrifying accompanied it, followed by lots of growling and barking. Toan grabbed Jessie and threw himself on the ground as a second jet of fire soared barely a metre above where they had been standing.

He could hear his father swearing over the sound of the terrified mareep. If it were not for Nelly, Toan was sure some of the mareep would have run straight into the river. It seemed Nelly was barely holding it together as it was though, great big tears had beaded up in her large eyes. She was terrified too.

Toan rolled his head and looked through the gate.

What he saw was not a growlithe, although it looked like a few dozen of them were roaming on the edge of the light. His eyes were immediately drawn to a set of powerful orange-furred legs; the sharp-clawed paws and the majestic mane of white-gold fur surrounding the Pokémon's neck. The arcanine stood as high as three of the growlithe together and a great deal more proudly. Its black eyes surveyed the scene in front of it, and then narrowed. Its lips pulled back in a silent growl, exposing its fangs to Nelly's flickering light.

_Oh, shit_

"Roam, go!" the shout broke through the stunned din as John threw a pokéball over the thin metal fence which served as their only protection from the arcanine and its pack.

A light brighter than Milly's tail flashed and Roam, John's blastoise emerged from the pokéball. Roam glanced around for the briefest of moments before his eyes settled on the arcanine. He sank his claws into the ground, tearing up chucked of dirt and gravels before a loud rumble sounded in his throat. Roam was an old blastoise and its appearance seemed to emphasise that fact. Its scaly skin was no longer as deep a blue as it used to be, and its shell bore obvious signs of countless battles. Deep roughs had been gouged into the steel hard shell and small gaps where parts of the shell had chipped off frequented the edges. Despite his age, Roam was tough as nails, and the strongest pokémon John owned.

In a flash, Grey leapt the gate and stood next to Roam. The fur on his back was sticking straight up in warning and his fangs were bared and he was snarling just as violently as the arcanine.

After a few tense moments the arcanine darted forward, jaw snapping. Grey tensed, ready to spring, but before he could move a plume of water took the arcanine full in the face.

The arcanine hit the ground with a loud thud, drenched. For a moment Toan thought that was the end of it, but the arcanine quickly stood back up and fiercely shook itself off. The water blast had only pissed it off.

Before the arcanine could attack again, Roam sprayed another jet of water in a wide arc at the pack. The arcanine leapt backwards, out of the water's path and growled. Roam stepped forward, water streaming out of his cannons, slowly forcing the arcanine and his pack backwards. The arcanine howled one last defiant howl before turning and snapped at the growlithe behind him. All at once they turned and broke, racing back down the road.

Grey bounded forward, eager to give chase, but John's voice boomed in the sudden silence left by the pack. "Grey!"

The mightyena stopped and looked back at his trainer.

Toan abruptly became aware of Jessie pressed against his chest. Flushing red he rolled slightly and helped Jessie to her feet. Tears stained her dusty cheeks and she was shaking slightly.

"They're gone, Jessie," he said as gently as he was able to.

Jessie didn't reply.

"Are you two, okay?" Garret Tully shouted as he sprinted over to them and wrapped Jessie in his arms.

"Y . . . yeah," said Toan in a shaky voice. His body was racing with adrenaline. He felt like he could sprint the whole way home! "At least I am. I think Jessica is . . . ."

He trailed off as Jessica sniffed loudly and said, "I'm good, Dad. I'm good."

A stream of red light flickered past them as John returned Roam to his pokéball. "We should go after them, Garret." He said gruffly as he jogged over. Grey jumped back over the fence to stand by his side.

Garret released his daughter and looked sharply at John. After a moment he said, "You're right, John. We should try and drive them back to the plains."

"We'll need to use the bikes."

Garret nodded grimly.

"What about the herd?" Toan broke in. "We can't leave them."

"You and Jessie will take them back to the ranch," John answered.

"But-!"

"'But' nothing, Toan. Your place is with the herd. See them home safe."

Toan opened his mouth to argue further, but at the glint in his father's eyes he thought the better of it and nodded. "Okay."

"Good man." John said with a quick smile. He turned to Garret. "Is Jessica okay to drive your ute?"

"I am," Jessie said, raising her chin.

"Get your vulpix out, Jessie," Garret said, "you might need her. And remember not to drive too fast; slow and steady will do. You'll have over a hundred mareep following you and nothing but Toan and that ampharos to keep them from straying."

"It's not my first time leading a herd of mareep, Dad," said Jessica.

"I know, but it's your first time doing it alone."

Jessica was silent for a moment, before flashing her bravest grin. "I'll be fine." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a miniaturised pokéball. She tossed it to the ground in front of her and a small, fluffy vulpix appeared in a burst of white light.

_Pi, pii?_ The vulpix cooed up at Jessie. Toan felt a sudden surge of jealousy. He didn't know Jessie had a pokémon.

"Come on, Vi!" Jessie said as she dashed off towards the ute. The vulpix followed eagerly, nearly bounding straight into Jessie's heels.

"Do you still have Ferret?" John asked Toan. "Keep him out too. He won't like me going off without him, but he'll keep you safe in case you run into trouble."

Toan reached into his pocket and withdrew his father's pokémon. He pressed the small button on the pokéball and held it out as the device opened up and Ferret appeared in a flash of light. The buizel twitched its nose and looked around before darting forward and clutching onto John's leg. Toan just stared. He had never liked Ferret all that much and Ferret had never taken a shine to him, either.

"You're going to stay with Toan, Ferret." John said firmly, knowing how difficult Ferret could be sometimes. "I need you to keep him and the herd safe."

Ferret leaned back and stared up at John. Its nose twitched furiously.

Toan ignored the buizel and hopped onto the quad bike again. Jessica was already inside the ute and was leaning out the window to see what was going on behind. The mareep herd had noticeably calmed down, but Toan was all too aware of the unpleasant smell of dung coming from the tightly pressed together herd.

Ferret suddenly leapt onto the back of the quad bike behind Toan and curled up into an unhappy ball on the back half of the seat. Toan gave Jessie the thumbs up.

"Stay safe, you two." John said as Toan started slowly behind the herd.

"You too."

Toan heard the gate swing back into place behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw John locking the paddock back up again. Garret pulled a pokéball out of his pocket and released a vaporeon that seemed to shimmer in the moonlight. Then John and Garret when on the farm bikes and racing up the road in pursuit of the arcanine and its pack, Grey and the vaporeon close behind.

* * *

The trip back was hell.

Not because of the pace Jessica set, even though it didn't help. She was keeping the perfect pace, just fast enough so that the mareep had no trouble keeping up with the ute and Nelly's swinging tail. Occasionally a mareep would wander off down the bank towards the river, Toan would have to drive the quad off the road and drive the mareep back into the main group. There were times when Toan was afraid the quad would slip and send him into the river. He didn't fancy having to explain that to his father when he got back.

Toan looked over his shoulder, not for the first time since his father and Garret Tully had ridden off in pursuit of the arcanine and the pack of growlithe. The howls had followed them, sounding angrier and more violent by the minute.

His gut was a nervous wreck and he could barely keep still on the quad bike. His agitation irritated Ferret so much he leapt from the quad bike and leapt over the top of the mareep to settle with Nelly on the back of the ute.

_Good riddance_, Toan thought bitterly. His ass was getting numb from being perched on the edge of the seat anyway.

The flamethrowers from the wild pack were becoming more and more frequent, but Toan noticed they were continually being forced back into the distance and off to the right. He guessed they had been forced over one of the small channels over into the plains by now. The thought filled him with hope for his father and Garret Tully's safety, but he hoped none of them were injured.

"Jessie, are you all right up there?" Toan called.

"Yep," Jessie stuck her arm out of the window and gave him the thumbs up. At least he thought it was her thumb... "How 'bout you?"

"Me? I'm golden," Toan answered. He was far from it.

The growls and howls eventually faded into mere impressions of their former ferocity as Toan and Jessie drove the herd down the road. He was sure they were getting close to the right turn point which would take them away from the river and back towards the ranch, but he couldn't tell in the moonlight.

Toan sighed as one little mareep broke away from the herd and began drifting towards the river. He flashed the quad's headlights to let Jessie know he was heading down the bank and veered to his left.

He drove behind the mareep and edged slightly to its left. The mareep jumped slightly and trotted back up the bank. At least this one was easier than the one before. He had been afraid that he wouldn't reach the last one in time.

Toan looked over his shoulder again and frowned. Was there something in the river?

He spun the quad around and full-beamed the headlights at the murky-looking river. He stared at the spot he thought he saw something and his frown tightened.

Suddenly something emerged from underneath the water with a sharp yelp filled with terror. Orange fur with a soft white mane emerged, and the growlithe managed to cry another yelp of fright before it was submerged yet again.

Toan had lived on the ranch all his life. He had seen pokémon die before - it was just a part of life. But there was no way in hell he was going to sit there and watch that growlithe die when he could do something about it.

"JESSIE!" Toan shouted as he yanked the quad's handbrake and leapt off of the back. He tore off his jacket as he ran into the river. He would have removed his boots too if he had enough time.

"What? What is it?" he heard Jessie shout back, but he didn't reply. He leapt with all the strength he could muster and dove headlong into the river.

The current immediately picked him up and carried him along. He thanked God that it was summer and the river wasn't as cold as freezing it would get during winter. He had never swum in clothes before, much less shoes. Every stroke was a struggle, but eventually he reached the middle of the river, right along the line where he had seen the growlithe submerge.

He trode water furiously, somehow managing to keep his head above the water. Dread filled him and he worried that he had been too late when the growlithe emerged about a metre from his right.

Toan stretched out, half swimming, half leaping, and managed to snatch the growlithe by the scruff of its neck. He dragged it in and clutched the pokémon close to his body. The growlithe gave a sharp yelp of pain and its eyes closed. Strands of red were being diluted and swept away by the current.

_It's bleeding_!

Scooping the growlithe in his left arm, Toan kicked furiously and windmilled his right arm. The river almost overwhelmed him, but somehow he managed to make it to the shallows and from there he walked on his knees onto dry land. Glorious land!

Toan drew in a ragged breath. His heart was beating so furiously he thought it was going to leap from his chest. He laid the growlithe on the ground as gently as he could and put his ear against the pokémon's ribcage.

_Thump_

_Thump_

Toan leaned back and almost sobbed in relief. He wiped the river water from his eyes and then remembered the blood in the water. His shirt was covered in it too.

The growlithe's left foreleg was bent at a cruelly odd angle, and deep lacerations that looked like bite marks had ripped away fur and flesh.

"Shit, shit, shit," muttered Toan. He nearly tore his shirt in his haste to get it off. He dried the sodden growlithe off as best he could before folding the shirt in half and wrapping it as best he could around the growlithe's broken foreleg.

The growlithe whimpered and yelped, but did not wake.

"What the hell, Toan?" Jessica called shrilly as she came sprinting over. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, leaping in the river like that. You could have drowned!"

She stopped suddenly as she noticed the growlithe and fell to her knees beside it. "Is it . . . is it dead?" she asked.

"No." Toan lifted the growlithe as gently as he could and lifted it up, taking care to mind its broken leg. The pokémon was all skin and bone and shaggy fur it seemed. "We need to get back to the ranch. Mum will know what to do."

"We should get him in the ute." Jessie pointed back towards the ute and the mareep. Toan was surprised to see that the river had carried him nearly a hundred metres away from the herd.

Toan nodded in agreement and struggled to his feet. Every step was agony. He had never felt so exhausted before. Jessie retrieved Toan's jacket from the water's edge and helped Toan wrap the growlithe tightly in its folds. Toan wished he had brought his fur-lined jacket instead of the thin cotton one. He wished it was clean as well.

Jessie pumped the ute's heater up and aligned the nozzles so that the hot air was blowing directly on the growlithe. "Viola likes it," she explained as Toan laid the growlithe on the passenger seat next to Viola the vulpix. Viola sniffed the growlithe with her small nose.

"Are you all right to keep going," Jessie had her hand on Toan's back. He was still sopping wet and shirtless, but at least the growlithe wasn't exposed anymore.

Toan nodded and managed to smile. "We need to get back to the ranch. The growlithe's hurt bad."

Jessica nodded and jogged around to the driver's seat. Toan placed his hand on the growlithe's head and said a silent prayer.

_Please don't die. Just hang on._

He closed the passenger's door and jogged around the milling mareep. The quad was where he left it by the edge of the river. He wheeled it around and drove slowly back up the river bank. He flashed the lights and Jessie started the ute back up, continuing their trek back to the ranch.

* * *

**Author's Note:** So, here it is: my first entry into the Pokémon aisle of the fanfiction store. I've got heaps of ideas for this story and I'm really excited to be finally writing them. This chapter is the longest chapter I've ever written for something before. The others shouldn't be as long as this; there was a lot I wanted to cover. This was originally half of what I was originally planning for chapter one, but I changed it to start with the action. I was worried that it wouldn't be long enough at first. Proved myself wrong there.

By-the-by, I believe utes and pick-ups are the same thing. Just in case there was some confusion over the lingo. It's like the whole Waldo/Wally debacle. Same thing, different name.

Got any comments? Constructive criticism? Questions? I welcome them all. I'm only going to improve if you guys give advice and point out any flaws and call me out on any mistakes, so please, be a sir/dame and drop a review!


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was just beginning to touch the horizon as Toan shifted down a gear and turned down the road which would take him home. He had been awake for close to twenty-four hours now and he was feeling the exhaustion in his bones. He had wound the Jeep's front window as far down as it would go and pumped the air-con to full cold on his face. He had even taken to talking to the sleeping growlithe to help himself stay awake.

The growlithe was curled into a small ball on the seat next to Toan. His broken leg had been wrapped and set in a solid white cast. Most shamefully, though, was the clear cone the nurse at the local Pokémon Clinic had placed around the growlithe's neck. The closest town to the ranch wasn't large enough to have a proper Pokémon Centre, but the clinic did well enough. If there were any series or life-threatening problems that the clinic couldn't heal, then they would teleport the pokémon to a Pokémon Centre in Celadon or Saffron City where they were far better equipped.

"Make sure he keeps the cone on for a couple of days at least." The tired looking clinic nurse had said as she rubbed her red-rimmed eyes. "He won't like it, but he'll chew the cast off otherwise." She hadn't been pleased when Toan had pounded on the clinic's main door in the early hours of the morning, but she had taken the injured pokémon willingly enough. She had opened the door, her dyed crimson hair a complete mess and stared at him with blurry eyes as he hurriedly explained what had happened.

Toan had nodded and glanced at the sleeping growlithe sprawled out on the clinic's steel examination table. "Will his leg be okay?"

"It's hard to say for sure," the nurse admitted. "The Hyperbolic Regeneration Machine set the break and repaired the damage, but it was a really bad break. Make sure you bring him back in a few days, okay, Toan? He might need another bout in the machine just to make sure everything has healed up nicely."

Toan nodded again and was given a small slip of paper with an appointment in a few days time. "During proper hours," the nurse added as she smothered a yawn and mumbled something about going back to bed. Toan was eager for bed himself, but he still thought it would be a while before he could fall into his blessed bed.

"I remember this one time when Felix and I camped in this old, abandoned house over the river." Toan told the growlithe when they were close to twenty minutes away from the ranch. "I don't remember why we ever wanted to actually _stay_ there. It was bloody stupid of us. People at school always tell stories about it, like, they'll say that one kid went missing in that house years and years ago and now his ghost haunts the place.

"Felix and I set up our sleeping bags in the living room and even built up a little fire in the old fireplace. For an hour or so we just laughed about how _un_-scary the place was. Then we talked about chicks and Pokémon and argued about who was the best trainer in the world. He reckons Cynthia, the champion from Sinnoh, is, but I reckon that's bull – he just has the hots for her. Cynthia's good to be sure, but I thought Lance could take Cynthia easy, or that trainer who became champion thirteen years ago but gave up the title."

The growlithe snored.

"Then it started to get dark and the wind picked up." Toan continued. "We managed to convince ourselves that we could hear whispering. Neither of us had any pokémon so we couldn't bring them out for some peace of mind. Eventually we heard something crash upstairs and the fire went out, and we bolted! We grabbed our sleeping bags and packs and sprinted out of there like there was a freaking gengar on our heels!"

Toan thought for a moment. "For all we know there could have been. There's something in that house, that's for sure." Jessica would have laughed at him if she heard that.

He told the growlithe about his crush on Jessie. He told him about how beautiful he thought she was and how his tongue always seemed to tie when he tried to talk to her normally. Last night was an exception though, that had come so naturally it surprised Toan when he reflected on it. He supposed it was because of the situation rather than any change on his part.

The growlithe was being informed about the inner-most workings of a Pokémon Ranch, when the triangular roof of the barn and the top of the sycamore tree were slowly revealed by the rising sun. Toan grinned in relief and drove a little bit faster.

A pair of ponyta in a field next to the ranch looked up from their grazing to stare at the jeep as it turned down the gravel driveway and into the ranch. "Here we are, Growlithe." Toan said after yawning loudly.

His father strode out of the barn as Toan pulled up beside the sycamore tree. Purple bags hung under John's eyes and he was walking rather slowly compared to his normal, brisk pace. A slightly stained bandage was wrapped around his father's right forearm. Toan remembered seeing the shiny burn when John and Garret Tully had arrived back at the ranch moments after Jessie and Toan had begun driving the mareep into the paddock by the house. Grey slunk behind him, clearly visible now in the daylight. There was a definite glint to the mightyena's eyes and patches of fur had been torn out of his rump, but aside from that the mightyena was uninjured.

Toan turned off the engine and nearly staggered out of the car. He managed to keep his feet, but it was a near thing. _Bed_, was very close to become his only thought. "How's the herd?" Toan asked his father.

"Safe." John replied, looking out into the paddock to the right of the sycamore tree. The mareep were either grazing or sleeping, but the ones that were awake seemed happy enough. "You and Jessie did well getting them home - extremely well."

Toan ducked his head. His father only gave praise when he thought you really deserved it.

"Your mother was worried sick about you," John continued. "I was too. I called the clinic a few hours ago and a rather grumpy sounding woman told us that you were waiting for the H.R. to patch up the growlithe." John cast his eyes over Toan's shoulder and into the jeep where the growlithe was still curled up on the passenger side seat. "Did she tell you we called?"

"I think it slipped her mind," replied Toan with wry grin. He scratched the back of his head. Grey began sniffing the ground next to John and slunk towards the jeep, as silent as a shadow. "Did Garret and Jessica get home okay?"

John nodded. "I helped them strap the bikes back down and they left as soon as the herd was inside the paddock. The Tully's are good people – honourable people. They did more for us last night than we can repay with a simple 'thank you'."

"I'll say," said Toan, nodding his head. Even the flock of pidgy who made their home in the sycamore tree seemed to tweet in agreement.

"We'll have to do something for them. I'm thinking I'll give them the pick of the stock the next time one of Lady's eggs shows up."

Lady was one of the few ponyta they owned. Some ranches dealt exclusively in ponyta and rapidash, unlike Toan's family's ranch which mainly dealt in mareep. Every ranch on the plains dabbled with ponyta, though, and often breeding deals were struck at the fair each summer.

"That'll be good."

The sound of growling and a short bark made Toan twist around with sudden fright. _Is that_ _the growlithe?_

Grey had walked around the other side of the jeep and was standing on his hind legs with his front paws hanging through the open window, growling and baring his fangs at the sleeping growlithe through the car window.

"Grey, no!" Toan shouted as he darted around the jeep at the same time his father said sharply: "To me, Grey!"

The mightyena all but ignored Toan, but at the sound of John's voice he dropped to the ground and ran back to John's side. Toan pulled the car door open and scooped the growlithe up in his arms. It was still fast asleep.

"I was thinking I'd put him in one of the stone stalls in the barn." Toan said, one eye on Grey. "That's probably the safest place, right?"

"That's a good idea," John said, then fell into step with Toan as he carried the growlithe towards the barn. "Roam's resting in there. He'll keep an eye on the growlithe and make sure he doesn't set fire to the barn. Ferret's in there too, but I don't know how much help he'll be."

_Too right about that_. "What about Grey?" Toan nodded at the mightyena.

"Grey won't hurt the growlithe now. Will you, Grey?" John didn't even need to bend his knees to scratch Grey behind his pointed ears. "Actually, I think Grey was the one responsible for that growlithe's broken leg."

Toan missed a step and nearly dropped the growlithe. "You're kidding!"

John shook his head. "Garret and I drove the pack to that little ford in the river about two kilometres up from the paddock. It was too risky to try and get them to the bridge, they could have scattered any which-way. The pack turned and fought when faced with water. If it wasn't for Roam and Garret's vaporeon I'm sure we both would have died."

Toan blinked and stared at his father with wide eyes.

John saw him looking and chuckled. "Okay, we might not have died, but we surely would have come away with more injuries than just this burn." He held up his bandaged forearm for emphasis. "Roam and Garret's vaporeon managed to force them across, but it was a near thing. That arcanine was a vicious thing. He and Grey had a scrap in the middle of the ford. If it wasn't for the water I don't think Grey would have come out of it as well as he did."

Grey turned up his nose at that, as if rejecting the entire notion that he would have lost.

John chuckled and scratched Grey's ears again. "During the scrap a couple of the growlithe tried to help the arcanine before Vaporeon could send them running. Grey took a mouthful of one of the growlithe's leg." John nodded at the growlithe in Toan's arms. "I could have sworn I heard something snap."

They came up to the barn and walked inside. Roam, the blastoise, had withdrawn into its battle-worn shell, but poked its head out when he heard Toan and John enter. He eyed them for a moment before withdrawing his head again. Ferret was lying on top of Roam's shell, but darted forward to greet John as he walked in. The buizel didn't spare the briefest of glances for Toan.

John continued his story as they walked around Roam and continued to the stone stalls where they kept the ponyta and other pokémon in winter. "The growlithe with the broken leg tried to jump, but its leg gave way and the current sent him down the river. It wouldn't have been the first one to die that night . . . ."

Toan was silent as he placed the growlithe in a bed of straw in the stall next to Nelly's.

"I'm proud of you, son." John said. "You handled yourself well last night. You got the herd back safely and saved that growlithe's life. I know Garret Tully was impressed at the way you handled yourself. So am I."

Toan could feel his ego swelling. "Thanks, Dad," he grinned.

"You better go get cleaned up," John said, returning Toan's grin. "Your mother will want to see you're okay, too."

Toan nodded and cast one last look at the sleeping growlithe before making his way out of the barn.

His mother nearly squeezed the life out of him when he walked through the front door. The smell of cooking strawberries and other sweet things drifted through the house. It was the first thing Toan noticed before his mother wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. Almost before Toan knew it he was bundled into the kitchen in front of a plate full of eggs and pancakes and grumpig bacon. The sight made Toan's stomach rumble. He had forgotten how hungry he was.

"Toby wanted to stay up until you and Dad got back," Minique said to Toan as she caressed his hair before turning to an extremely large pot on the stove. The thick strawberry smell was coming from that pot. Dozens of small glass jars lined the bench top and windowsills around the kitchen. "He fell asleep about half an hour after you and Dad left with the Tullys. I'm sure he'll wake up soon."

Toan grunted through a mouthful of eggs and bacon. _Heck this is good!_

"I imagine you'll want to get some sleep soon?" His mother raised an eyebrow questioningly and looked over her shoulder. "Don't eat too much; you'll give yourself nightmares if you go to bed on a full stomach."

Toan rolled his eyes before he swallowed a particularly large mouthful, blinking as the effort brought tears to his eyes. As if sensing Toan's distress, Minique filled a cup full of Moo-Moo Milk and handed it to him. He drank gratefully and then tackled one of the pancakes covered in syrup.

"Jessica Tully is such a lovely girl, isn't she?"

Syrup dripped onto his lap as Toan froze with the fork halfway to his mouth. He made another grunting sound and shrugged his shoulders. _She's fishing_, he thought, staring suspiciously at his mother's back.

"She was so polite last night. She was really good with Sasha, too. I've never seen her take to someone as quickly as she took to Jessica."

Sasha was his mother's rather shy skitty. Minique had never been a full-fledged trainer like John and so the skitty was the only pokémon she owned. Sasha was notorious for hiding under the house or in the loose hay on the second level of the barn when the ranch had guests. It had taken a few months after Toan and Toby were born before Sasha had gotten used to having them around. Sometimes John would laugh and say that he still had the scars Sasha gave him when he and Minique started dating.

"And Toby adores her," Minique turned to face her son. "Do you know if she has a boyfriend?"

Toan shrugged and stuffed his mouth full of pancake. He knew full and well that Jessie was single, but he _really_ didn't want to have this particular conversation with his mother.

Minique pushed her silky black hair out of her face and peered at Toan through her slightly slanted eyes. "Maybe you should work on that."

Food sprayed out of Toan's mouth as he choked and coughed in surprise. Minique winced in distaste at the chunks of pancake and nabbed Toan's half-finished plate from the bench as Toan gulped down the rest of the Moo-Moo Milk. _I should have seen that one coming,_ thought Toan, about his mother's question _and_ the theft of the food. The comment was basically his mother in a nutshell. She would hint at something to try and get a response, but if she didn't like what she heard she would say something like _that_.

"Toby can finish this when he wakes up," said Minique. "A shower, then bed for you, mister. I'll make sure Toby doesn't wake you up."

"Make sure you wake me up in time for the fair, though!" Toan replied as he stood and dusted crumbs off of his jacket. He wore it zipped up rather than loose. He had promptly thrown away the bloody tee shirt he had wrapped around the growlithe's leg after he arrived at the clinic.

Minique held her nose and waved him off.

As soon as he walked into his bathroom he stripped off and dumped the blood and dirt and grime streaked clothes into the clothes hamper behind the door. He stood in the shower, scrubbing himself with soap for nearly half an hour until he felt clean again.

He fell into bed with half-wet hair and fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

His brother woke him up by shaking his bed a couple of hours before nightfall. Toan tried to swat Toby away, but only managed to connect with empty air as his brother danced out of the way.

"Mum says that it's time to get up!" Toby said gleefully. "Dad's been asleep all morning too, but he's up now. I've been helping him get ready for the fair!"

Toan rolled over and mumbled into his pillow. Suddenly Toby leapt onto the bed and tried to tackle him out. He almost succeeded too, but Toan grabbed his brother and in the space of a few seconds he had Toby face down on the bed with one hand smooshing his brother's face into the pillow. After a few seconds of squirming, Toan let his brother go and leapt out of bed. Toby pushed himself up, red-faced, but with a wide grin on his face.

"I'll get you one day," said Toby. When he started helping their dad out as much as Toan did, he might just get strong enough to do it too.

Toan pulled on a pair of shorts and tried to flatten his hair, which was sticking up at odd angles. _I knew I shouldn't have gone to bed with wet hair._ "Keep dreaming, bro."

The smell of strawberries still lingered through the house. Toan filled his nose with the smell as he came down the stairs in an old singlet and a pair of flip-flops. As he walked past the kitchen he poke his head in and saw every single one of the glass jars lining the bench filled with strawberry jaw. His mother eyed his clothes and raised an eyebrow. She didn't need to say anything; Toan had seen that look before.

"I'm just gonna help dad get things ready," he explained with a laugh.

"I think I'll lay out some clothes for you to wear to the fair, just in case," Minique said. "You're not going to seduce Jessica in a singlet and shorts!"

Toan ducked out of the kitchen and escaped outside before his mother saw the red flush enter his cheeks. _I wish she'd never got Jessie and me into her head. She's going to be hell to live with now. Knowing her she'll lay out a freaking suit for me to wear!_

As it turned out his father didn't need any help.

"You're about twenty minutes late, Toan. Toby's been helping me get everything ready." John said as he walked around the walled trailer he had hooked up to the back of the jeep. Nelly was peering through a small barred gap between the corrugated iron roof and the swing out door. Toan could just imagine her tail flashing madly. John checked the link between trailer and jeep before straightening and stretching his back.

"You're not planning on selling Nelly, are you?" Toan chewed his lip. He didn't want Nelly to go. He had become rather attached to the ampharos since she had evolved last year.

"No," replied John, "she's far too valuable to us here. I'm just taking her along to show her off. You know, I'd heard about farmers in Johto who use ampharos to round up mareep, but I hadn't heard of it over here. If every ranch had an ampharos it would make things a lot easier."

"Jessie said last night that they'd have to look at getting an ampharos to help with their herd." Toan said.

His father held his palm outwards and nodded. "Well, there you go."

"How's the growlithe? Has he woken up?" Toan asked.

John nodded, "He sure has. He burned the cast off, as well as all of the hay in his stall. I saw the smoke coming out of the cracks and thought he'd set fire to the entire barn!"

"Good thing we put him in one of the stone stalls." It would have been a disaster if he'd been placed in one of the wood ones. The barn wouldn't have burned down, but Roam would have pumped so much water at the growlithe he might have finished what the river had started!

"He spent a while trying to get the cone off his head, but couldn't manage it. It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time." John chuckled to himself. "He had Ferret laughing at him for a while, but I returned him when he started spitting water at the growlithe when its back was turned."

Toan grinned at the image. "I'm gonna go check on him."

"Sure thing. Be careful though, that growlithe is still as wild as it was yesterday. Just because we have it locked up doesn't change that."

"I know, Dad."

"Good. Don't be too long, we'll be leaving in about half-an-hour."

John had left the barn door open and as Toan stepped in he understood why. The sharp odour of smoke still lingered around the barn. Even the window up top on the second level was open wide. The barn was eerily empty with Nelly peering out of her stall and Roam resting by the entrance. Not even Ferret was dancing around causing trouble. Toan supposed his father had withdrawn them, as well as Grey, to take to the fair with him.

The growlithe lifted its head as Toan approached the stone stall and looked inside. As John had said, the growlithe had burned off its leg cast but hadn't succeeded in removing the cone around its neck. It was bent slightly and scratched but still firmly around its neck. The sight made Toan grin, almost as much as the anguished look in the growlithe's eyes as it tried to push the cone with its paws.

"Well I suppose there's no point in you having this on anymore," Toan said as he leaned over the rail and tried grab the cone.

The growlithe bared its teeth and backed away, a low growl rumbled in its throat.

Toan withdrew his hands. "Easy now, I'm not going to hurt you." The rumble stopped. "I'm just going to take the cone off, that's all."

Maybe the growlithe recognised the sound of his voice from Toan's ceaseless chatter from that morning, or maybe he understood what Toan was saying. Regardless, the growlithe eyed him uncertainly before he lowered his eyes and slowly approached Toan.

Toan leaned forward again and undid the cone. As soon as it left the growlithe's neck, the pokémon backed away and began nursing the formerly broken leg – promptly ignoring Toan.

"You're welcome," said Toan with a sigh. He watched the growlithe lick its paws for a moment, his brow getting lower and lower. He had noticed back in the river, but it had slipped his mind completely since then. He could see the growlithe's ribs underneath his skin and fur. It must be starving, Toan was surprised he hadn't tried to chew through the iron gate!

With a worried frown on his face, Toan walked over to the bin full of pokémon food his father used to feed Grey and the rest of his pokémon. He half-filled a small metal bowl – it was never good to give a starving pokémon too much food at once - and filled a second full of cold water from the tap outside. The growlithe stared at the food suspiciously when Toan placed it in the stall, but eventually hunger won out. Toan leapt back as the growlithe breathed hot embers onto the bowl of pokémon food. After the food was steaming it settled down to eat.

_I didn't know growlithe warmed their food before eating_. "I'll give you some more when I get back from the fair." Toan told the growlithe. He hesitated, then reached out his hand.

The growlithe immediately stopped eating and bared his teeth again. Toan nearly pulled his hand back, but something stopped him. Eventually the growlithe stretched out his neck and sniffed Toan's hand uncertainly. Toan jumped when the growlithe's warm, wet tongue brushed his fingertips.

_Well, what do you know._

The growlithe ducked his head and went back to his food, allowing Toan to scratch his ears.

"Be good, Growlithe. Don't burn down the barn."

The growlithe didn't even look up from his food.

* * *

Author's Note: Lots of family interactions this chapter, as well as a few hints about what's coming up further down the track. Some are pretty blatant, others not so much.

Cheers to misterkennedy11 for reviewing. I mentioned some things that gave an indication of the time period where this story is set. Hope this chapter answers your question somewhat. :)

Liked what you read? Drop a fav, review or alert. Any criticism? I welcome it. Until next time.


	3. Chapter 3

"Done!" Toan exclaimed as he slammed the final box of jam onto the plastic fold up table. Well, slammed was an exaggeration, but he definitely placed it on the table with more force than necessary. Jars of jam rattled haphazardly and some near the edges of the table threatened to fall.

His mother shot him a stern look from the other side of the table and reached to steady one jar of apricot jam which almost fell off the table to the grass. "Careful, Toan. I didn't slave away over a stove for three days making these jams so you could feed them to the grass."

A wince crossed Toan's face, but a grin quickly followed. "Sorry, Mum."

Minique looked him up and down and_ tutted_ between her teeth. This wasn't because of the near-spillage; she had been casting long-suffering sighs in his general direction ever since he had first come downstairs after getting changed for the fair. After he had seen the growlithe and went back to his room to change, he was greeted with a white, dress shirt and a pair of dress pants he had worn only once before at his school formal. Toan had stared at them for a full minute, wondering if his mother really expected him to wear them to a _summer_ _fair!_ He had traded his singlet for a checked button up shirt and his best pair of jeans, but didn't bother with shoes. Minique had been most concerned with the flip-flops more than anything else.

He was saved by another lecture about his choice of clothing when Toby suddenly appeared at his side. Unlike Toan, Toby had worn the clothes Minique had laid out for him, and they were already streaked with dirt. "Mum," said Toby breathlessly, "can I have some money for some candy-floss?"

Suddenly, Toan was forgotten as Minique turned on Toby, her eyes narrowing at his appearance. "You've been in the hay bales," she accused. One long-fingered hand snapped out and plucked a bit of hay from Toby's hair. "Look at your clothes!"

Toby looked at his dirt-streaked white shirt in surprise.

"I should have expected this." Minique's sigh disappeared into the rising sound of voices and the bustle of activity around them. "_Boys_! I would have loved to have a girl."

Toan reached over the plastic table and patted his mother on the shoulder; a wide grin decorated his face. "Well, I'm off to find something to do."

Minique waved him off with a shrewd smile.

"Come on, Toby. I'll give you some money; I've got heaps of shrapnel." Toan pulled out his wallet and dumped some loose change into Toby's hands. Toby only spared a second to thank Toan before shoving the coins into his pockets and darting off the way he had come."

Minique's jam table wasn't the only stall set up selling all sorts of merchandise. Some people used the fair as an excuse to try and sell all sorts of old farm equipment or homemade treats. As Toan walked through the makeshift marketplace he spied Toby and a group of his friends crowding around a stall which sold a variety of homemade candies and other sweet things. Over the other side of the fairground were pens for pokémon, mainly ponyta – although other ranch-owners sometimes sold mareep or flaaffy. That's where John would be with Nelly. In past Summer Fairs, they also created a fort, or some other construction made from hay bales, which was certainly where Toby had gotten all muddy – Toan would stake all the money in his wallet on it.

In the centre of the fairground, a small platform had been erected and men and women were bustling around with amp cords and generators. Some men were even on ladders rigging different coloured lights to flash onto the stage. A massive tarp had put up on large poles over the makeshift stage. Without a cloud in sight, Toan would have thought that such protection against rain wasn't necessary. That had been the opinion of many of the fair organisers too, but last year a shock summer storm had put an end to the festivities early, and ruined thousands of dollars of electrical equipment too. The stage wasn't the main point of attraction though, surprisingly enough, each year a massive bonfire was built out of fallen tree branches and old, broken crates. The pile of wood was always built four metres high and doused with petrol.

Near the stage, a group of men were handing thick red tubes of fireworks, carefully positioning them in stands by the back of the stage. It was traditional for the summer fair to have a fireworks show. They couldn't last year because of the storm. This year they planned to make up for it, having doubled the amount of fireworks and sparklers and other such things.

"Hey, Toan!"

Toan paused mid-step and looked over his shoulder. A tall teenager, easily taller than anyone in the immediate vicinity, walked towards Toan – swaggered towards Toan, more like. The teenager's shoulders were thrown back confidently and he seemed to sway ever so slightly with each stride. He sniggered, and held a closed fist to his mouth to hide his laughter as soon as Toan looked at him. Toan just shook his head and grinned back at him.

"How's it going, Felix?" Toan asked the tall teenager as he came into earshot.

"Not bad, I guess," replied Felix, still grinning broadly. "I saw you and your brother lugging those boxes around before. Your mum's jam?"

"Yeah. You should have come and helped. Toby and I wouldn't have had to make so many trips back to the car."

"Nah, they looked heavy."

Toan snorted. "You should buy some concrete - harden up."

"Like you when you're around a pretty girl, hey." Felix retorted with a sly note in his voice. "Oh, wait . . . ."

Toan could feel the tips of his ears go pink. "Douche."

Felix just laughed. "You know I only kid, Toan." To emphasise his words, Felix threw a long arm around Toan's shoulders and squeezed him tight until Toan managed to untangle himself. "You know Caitlin, from school? She works with me at the PokéMart now. She was asking about you the other day. You know, all secretive-like. She said that you always go red when you talk to her. She thinks it's cute."

"Oh, so _that's_ why you sent that message the other day?" Toan pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped the text message icon on the touch screen. "I was like, 'what the hell?'"

"She was with me when I messaged you," Felix said, laughing.

"Crap, did she see what I replied?" Toan asked. He had replied with one word: no. That was it; just, 'no'.

"Nah, I told her you were being really ambiguous with your answer."

Toan had to laugh at that. "And yet I probably couldn't have given a clearer answer." He reread the message Felix had sent him days before and chuckled again.

"Yeah, it was pretty weird. When she mentioned that you always went red, I was like: 'hmm, maybe Toan's not telling me something'."

Toan shrugged. Felix had the right of that part; Toan had never mentioned his crush on Jessie to him before. The growlithe was the only one to hear about that particular secret. Well, it exactly a secret. He wasn't hiding it from anyone; he just didn't want the entire town knowing. His mother was already bad enough with her suspicions.

"I'm pretty sure whenever I laugh too hard my face goes red." Toan said. "It's not because Caitlin's around. She's a funny girl, but I don't like her like that."

"Mmkay." That knowing tone was in Felix's voice.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"What about you?" Toan decided that flipping the tables would be very wise. "Why aren't you dating Mikaela yet?" Mikaela was a girl from town who lived nearby to Felix. She had the most amazing eyes Toan had ever seen, with one brown iris and the other one green. A man could drown in eyes like those.

"With what car, Toan?" Felix shot back. "I'll just invite her over for some takeaway, hey? Or she can sit on my bike's handlebars. That'll make a great first date."

The sarcasm was not lost on Toan. They had had this discussion before. "You'd better get a move on, she won't stay single forever. I heard that Mark Singh is pretty keen on her."

"Is that so?" Felix narrowed his eyes. "He's a bit of a pretty boy, though. She's not keen on him, is she?"

Toan shrugged, but then a familiar slim figure sitting down behind a booth with different sized bottles and jars caught his eye. "Why don't we ask Jessie? She's friends with Mikaela."

"Jessie Flat-Chest?" Felix said in surprise as Toan started off towards the girl minding the booth.

"She's not that bad, Felix." Toan said. "I reckon she's pretty hot." The memory of her body on top of his the night before suddenly filled Toan's head. It wasn't romantic in any way, but it made this weird feeling in his stomach tighten when he thought of it.

"Well, yeah she's attractive, I'll give her that." Felix said as he quickly caught up to Toan. "I don't think she likes me much, though."

"What makes you say that?" Toan said sardonically.

"Yeah, okay, fair enough. I know what you're getting at. . . ." Felix's voice got fainter and fainter until it was swallowed by the noise of the fair.

Toan smiled broadly as they he and Felix approached Jessie's booth. At the sight of them she immediately took her chin out of her palm and gestured grandiosely at the jars and bottles filled with a dark, sweet smelling liquid. Viola, Jessie's Vulpix, was lying in the middle of the table, her ears flicking forward and back frequently at each new sound.

"Can I offer you a sample of my father's _delicious_ apple cider?" she said grandly, smiling with both her mouth and her eyes.

"I . . ." Toan tried to say his tongue suddenly feeling swollen and hot. Jessie was wearing a sundress! A low-cut, pale red sundress! He had never seen her in a dress before. Jeans, yes; school skirt, yes; even short shorts, but never in a dress.

"I'll try some!" Felix said, unwittingly saving Toan from a pair of rosy cheeks.

Jessica glanced at Felix as he sidled next to Toan, looking at the jars and bottles of apple cider eagerly. "Sorry!" her voice _oozed _sticky sweetness. "I'm only allowed to sell to adults. I could get in trouble with the authorities, you know."

"But, you just offered Toan some!" Felix seemed outraged at the injustice of it all.

"Yeah, well." Jessie's eyes seemed to sparkle as she looked back at Toan. "He's in my good books at the moment."

The blush nearly shamed Toan there and then. Damn his nerves. And _damn_ that warm fuzziness in his chest. Somehow he managed to keep his cheeks cool. "Thanks for your help last night, Jessie. If it weren't for you and your dad we might have lost the herd."

"Wait, _what_?" Felix exclaimed, but was promptly ignored.

"Oh, I don't think so," Jessie smiled and stroked Viola's fur idly. "You and your dad would have been fine without us, I think. But you're welcome, nonetheless."

"You almost lost your herd?" Felix asked.

Toan broke his eyes away from Jessie's and began filling Felix in on what happened the night before. Jessie helped too, providing random details that Toan missed. When they told Felix about how the Freys drove the pack of growlithe onto Toan's family land, Felix swore explosively.

"Those bloody Freys. I never liked them, the arrogant douchebags. You know I saw the youngest kid, Tyler, smoking it up by the kid's section before. I was gonna go over there, but your dad beat me to it, Toan. I've never seen your dad so angry, hey. He marched over there with that mightyena of his and told Tyler to go. I thought Tyler was gonna try start something, but he clearly thought the better of it. I would have hit him, personally. He could have set fire to the hay bales. It's as dry as hell out here. One little ember on the hay and the bales would go up like kindling."

Felix was breathless after his rant, but Toan felt hot rage building in his stomach. His little brother had been playing there!

Toan continued the story with little interruption from then. He figured Felix was too busy stewing over Tyler Frey to comment on anything else.

"So basically I rescued the growlithe and drove him to the clinic in town. It sounds more impressive than it actually was." Toan finished with a slight shrug.

"No, that's not true, Felix!" Jessie insisted as she reached over and began playing with Toan's rolled up sleeve. "He swam through the _river_ to save that growlithe, _and_ managed to get out again without any help." Her fingers touched the sun-darkened skin on his forearm. "It was _very_ impressive, Toan."

There was a moment of silence. Toan could feel the burn in his cheeks now.

"Can someone hear a tap dripping?" Felix muttered loud enough for both Toan and Jessie to hear.

It was like Toan's cheeks were on fire now. Even Jessie had deep flush creeping up her neck.

"You're disgusting, Felix." Jessie said. "I should tell Mikaela to stay away." She took her hand away from Toan's sleeve, almost self-consciously, and resting it on her vulpix's back.

Toan found himself sniggering as Felix desperately tried to win some points back with Jessie.

"Come on, Jess, I only kid. I'm sorry for being gross." Felix seemed to whine, but Toan had known his friend long enough to know he wasn't being sincere. If Jessie had really been upset, he would have apologised for real, but Jessie seemed more embarrassed than upset.

_I know that feeling._

He listened to Felix and Jessie exchange barbed comments for a little while, smiling slightly to himself. Full dark had fallen over the fairground, but the makeshift stage was illuminated by spotlights and every stall and little shop seemed to be lit by fairy lights and lanterns both. This is what Toan liked most about the summer fair, it had enchanted him as a child, and the feeling stayed.

"It looks like they're all ready to go at the stage," Toan said as soon as there was a gap in Felix and Jessie's 'conversation'. "Wanna go check it out?"

"I'm keen." Felix piped in at once.

Jessie sighed. "I can't leave the stall until Lizzie gets back. She's singing this year, you know."

"So you're going to be stuck here for a while?" Toan asked, his heart dropping slightly.

"Yeah. . . But hey, I might come find you when I'm finished."

Fallen heart? Maybe for an instant, but at Jessie's words Toan felt it soar! "That'll be good," he grinned, managing not to blush either!

Toan and Felix left Jessie and her vulpix at the booth and weaved their way through the other stalls and people crowding around the fair. They saw a few people they knew from school and stopped to say hello, briefly. They also ran into Caitlin, and Toan was forced to make small talk, while Felix shuddered with silent laughter and occasionally asked awkward leading questions.

"Thanks for that," Toan said to Felix after Caitlin walked off back towards the booths and stalls.

"You looked like you were doing fine," replied Felix. "At least you didn't blush. Or if you did, it didn't pick up in the lamplight. You know, I don't understand why you're so bad around girls. You live on a _ranch_, man, if you played that angle a bit more you'd have girls throwing themselves at you."

"Yeah, well . . ." Toan mumbled. It was a tempting notion - any guy his age would find it tempting - but he didn't want just _any_ girl.

"So I applied for my training license the other day."

Toan looked at Felix in surprise, though, to be fair, it was partially because of the abrupt change of subject. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. I filled out the forms at the PokéMart. Did you know that they run background checks on people now when you apply?"

"Nah, I didn't know that. I suppose it's fair enough; some people shouldn't be out there, hey. It's why they raised the training age in the first place." Toan had to speak up as they stopped near the edge of the crowd gathering around the bonfire. "How long have you been thinking about this?"

"I dunno. I don't think I ever _stopped_ thinking about it. Ever since I got Bulbasaur, it's like everything's starting to become real and not just some fantasy in my head. I'll be sixteen in a month, and I want to be gone before then - so long as my application is accepted." Felix paused before continuing. "Actually, I'm surprised you haven't gone yet."

Toan blinked. _Why haven't I gone yet? I turned sixteen three months ago. _It was the dream. It was every kid's dream growing up. Turn ten, travel the region, challenge the Elite Four. He was no different. "Dad needs my help with the ranch," he said lamely. It wasn't strictly true. John appreciated his help, but he didn't need it, not with Nelly and his pokémon with him. "I don't have a pokémon, either."

"That's why they have lab starters."

_I have always wanted a squirtle_. "I guess."

"It's up to you, but if you send in an application we could journey together. That's been the plan since we were kids, right?"

It would be easy, Toan frowned. He could follow in his dad's footsteps; travel for a few years; bring home a girlfriend._ Or find one here, if she's still around._ The image of Jessie with her sun-streaked hair and that pale red dress sprung into his mind. _She smelt like apples._

"I'll think about it," Toan finally said with a quick grin at his best friend.

"Cool, cool." Felix replied, just as the sound of a guitar strumming through an amplifier sounded across the grounds.

"Looks like the singing's starting," Toan said.

"Not just that." Felix nodded towards the bonfire, just in time for Toan to see a charmeleon breathe fire onto the great pile of logs and sticks. The bonfire went up like a light, fuelled by the petrol poured over the dry wood. Toan didn't fail to count two blastoises and a poliwrath close by, just in case something went wrong. The fire lit up the night, much more than the lanterns managed to.

A tall woman with blonde hair illuminated by the firelight took her place in the middle of the stage and smiled brilliantly at the crowd. Toan doubted there was a male in town that didn't recognise Lizzie Tully. Her hair hung in ringlets down her back and her red dress emphasised a deep curve from breast to hip.

And then she started to sing, adding her beautiful voice to the sound of the ongoing fair.

"Heck, I didn't know she was _that_ good." Toan said to Felix.

"Neither did I."

They watched with the crowd until Lizzie Tully bowed, her face flushed with excitement and left the stage to a symphony of cheers and applause – including some suggestive whistles from a group of guys near the front of the crowd.

"I'm gonna go get a coke from one of the stalls," Felix said as he moved his fingers from his mouth – he had been whistling too.

"I might get one too," Toan said, and started after his friends. He had barely gone five steps when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over his shoulder, frowning, but as soon as he saw Jessie standing behind him with a shy smile on her face, he grinned.

"I thought you were minding your booth," he said.

"Mum came and let me go." Jessie smiled and stepped closer. Her hand was on Toan's sleeve again. "Do you wanna go for a walk?"

All thoughts of Felix and getting a coke vanished. "I'd love to."

* * *

In all honesty, they didn't walk far.

They went to the hay bales out by the children's section first, but the sound of flesh slapping and low, barely contained moans made them move along almost as quickly as they came. Jessica had continued to giggle so hard at the lusty couple that each time Toan managed to overcome his laughter a fresh wave sent him staggering.

"We . . . we really should have known better!" Toan exclaimed in-between bouts of laughter.

"It sounded so sticky," said Jessica as she clutched at his arm with one hand. "And sweaty."

They eventually found a spot to sit down by an old tracker a few hundred metres away from the gathering at the bonfire - and well away from the hay bales too.

"Why were they even there? It's only, like, eight o'clock. There are still kids around!" Jessie said after calming down enough to speak without giggling.

Toan shrugged. "Maybe they had too much of your apple cider."

Jessie slapped his arm, though not very hard. Her fingers lingered again. She'd been doing that a _lot_ tonight. "Hah, maybe. Hey, I never asked before. How's the growlithe doing?"

They talked for a while, as Toan told Jessie about what happened after he had left with the growlithe last night, as well as what happened that morning – in detail this time, not just a quick play-by-play like when he told Felix. He did try to make it sound interesting - more interesting than he drove an hour and a half, waiting around for close to three and then drove back. Jessie's eyes never left his face as he talked, a small smile playing on her lips.

"What?" Toan asked.

"Oh, it's nothing." Jessie said, her smile growing. "I just don't think I've ever heard you speak for so long before."

At that moment, Toan didn't quite know what to say. _So much for me talking. . . ._

Jessie laughed and folded one leg over the other. Her skirt shifted up for a moment before she readjusted it, revealing her tanned thighs. "And you're funny too."

"Well I'm glad someone thinks so."

"And you're brave," Jessie continued, "I don't know if anyone at our school would have done what you did last night. You were so calm, the whole time. I was so scared after our dads left. I was worried about them; I was worried about leading the herd back to your ranch."

_I was frightened too, Jessie_.

"And my heart was in my throat when I saw you go into the river!"

Toan felt his hand twitch. Jessie's hand was right there, about five inches away, all he had to do. . . _Why is this so nerve-wracking?_

He was just about to slide his fingers towards Jessie's hand when another voice broke through the quiet around the tractor. The person sounded loud and angry. With a silent start, Toan realised he recognised the voice.

"That family is really starting to piss me off," Tyler Frey ranted to someone walking with him. "You know that he and Garret Tully filed a complaint with the Mayor this morning about that pack of growlithe your arcanine leads. Garret Tully and his slut of a daughter saw you and dad chase them across the river and onto their neighbour's lands. They went and warned them straight away."

Tyler Frey and his companion were walking past the tractor. Like Felix, Toan had never liked Tyler Frey. The Frey looked furious! Toan tried to slink low in his seat while simultaneously straining his neck to see. He could feel Jessie bristling next to him, her face flushed in the moonlight. He grabbed her hand and shook his head, pressing a single finger to his lips when she turned to look at him. She only stared for a moment before nodding. She didn't try to free her hand, in fact Toan felt her slide her fingers through the gaps in his.

Whatever Tyler Frey's companion replied, it was too low for Toan to hear. He didn't recognise the stanger, all he could see was a pale face under a wide-brimmed black hat.

"He rejected father's offer on that ampharos too." Tyler Frey continued, steadily becoming angrier. "He could have bought and trained five mareep and evolved them with that money and _still_ would have had change to spare!"

More whispers from the other man. Tyler Frey drew to a halt right in front of the tractor and pulled out a pokéball. "What were we supposed to do differently? If the Tully's hadn't seen, that mareep herd would all be dead or ours. If we had attacked John and Garret we would have had the police at our door before the sun was up."

"You should have gone after the kids!" Tyler Frey's companion hissed, raising his voice loud enough for Toan to hear. "Your lairon and your bother's camerupt would have killed them and the herd while their parents were busy with the pack. Instead you watched them leave!"

Tyler Frey mumbled something under his breath. Toan flinched as the other man drew back his arm and punched Tyler square in the face. Jessie gripped Toan's hand tighter.

"Don't be an idiot," the stranger spat. "Now get up, we're going to talk to your father."

Tyler Frey stood and wiped blood from his lip, scowling at the stranger. The stranger grabbed Tyler by the shoulder and pushed him forward. As they walked away, the stranger looked over his shoulder and looked back at the tractor - right at Toan and Jessie. He seemed to smirk, and then followed after Tyler Frey, disappearing into the night.

Toan released a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding. He was suddenly aware of a sharp pain in his hand. He looked down and saw Jessie's nails digging into his knuckles. They hadn't broken the skin, but it was close. Jessie's fingers were white from the pressure they were exerting.

"They're gone, Jessie," Toan whispered as he detached his hand from Jessie's and reached into his pocket for his cell phone.

"They were talking about _killing_ us!" Jessie said, her voice shaking slightly. "What are you doing?"

"Asking Dad where he is," Toan said as he finished writing out the text message and sent it.

"That's a good idea." Jessie reached into her bra and pulled out her own phone.

Toan only stared, mouth slightly open.

"I think we should head back to the fair," Jessie said as she finished her text. She kept the phone in her hand instead of putting it back in her bra.

"Yeah, agreed." Toan climbed down the tractor and turned to see Jessie leap easily from the seat, not even bothering with the small step. _Ranch girl, _Toan thought with a small smile. Jessie took a second to straighten her dress, and then looked uneasily where Tyler Frey and the stranger disappeared.

"Let's go," Toan held out his hand for her without even realising at first. He was about to pull it back and pretend he hadn't done anything when Jessie slipped her hand into his and smiled.

The first firework lit up the sky as Toan and Jessie walk back towards the fair.

* * *

Author's Note: There's action lined up for next time. Promise. It took me a while to write this chapter. I wasn't satisfied with how it turned out. It took a rewrite or two, plus lots of editing to get this. Until next time, peeps.


	4. Chapter 4

John seemed remarkably unconcerned when Toan tracked him down to tell his father what he and Jessie had overheard at the tractor. "I wouldn't worry about Tyler Frey," John said as he rubbed down Nelly with handfuls of hay. "He's not exactly the brightest of the Frey brood."

Toan half-shrugged, his father had a point there. It wasn't really Tyler Frey who had frightened him anyway; it had been Tyler's companion. "It really freaked me out, Dad. You should have heard them. It was bad, right, Jessie?"

He looked over his shoulder to see Jessie standing as stiff as a board, her arms pressed against her sides as Grey wandered in circles around her legs, sniffing her knees and ankles suspiciously. "Umm, yeah . . . yeah, it was really freaky . . ."

"Grey, leave her alone." John said briskly, and the mightyena slunk away from Jessie to return to his trainer's side. Jessie visibly relaxed. "Look, I believe you two heard what you heard, but there's really not a lot we can do about it now. The herd is safe; the pack of growlithe and that arcanine are back across the river, and I doubt they'll try to get back over any time soon."

"Did Arthur Frey try to buy Nelly?" Toan interrupted.

John blinked. "He made an offer - a very generous one. I was never going to sell though; Nelly's part of the family."

"I take it he wasn't happy about that."

"Not particularly, but he didn't threaten to ruin me and my ranch – if that's what you're getting at." John dropped the fistfuls of hay and went to scratch Nelly behind her ears.

"Dad, I-"

"I don't want you to worry about the Freys, Toan." John's voice had a note of finality to it. Toan had heard it in his father's voice before; he wasn't going to get any further with his dad if he kept on pushing.

"Okay," Toan said, looking down.

"Good." John turned back to Nelly. The ampharos looked tired, but her tail was still flashing happily. The light only flashed brighter when the occasional firework was launched into the sky. "Go back and enjoy the fair while you can. We'll be leaving in an hour."

_Only an hour_? Toan checked the clock on his phone and grimaced. It was still early, the fair usually went past midnight – not that Toan and his family had ever stayed that late before.

"Hey, Toan," Jessie touched his hand. "Can you walk me back to my mum's booth?"

"Yeah, sure thing." Toan grinned at her as they left John and Nelly and left the makeshift pokémon enclosure. The fair was still in full swing, with many people gathered around the bonfire listening to the current performer singing on the stage. Jessie's older sister was gone; probably back to the booth with her mother.

"Your dad didn't seem too worried," Jessie said after they were well away from the enclosure.

"I don't think he worries much about anything," Toan admitted. "If he does, he doesn't let Toby or I see."

"My dad tries to, but whenever he's worried about something he always keeps his pokémon close by. Usually he lets them roam around the ranch. Do you remember when we had those massive storms a few years back? Dad had his pokémon in their pokéballs the entire time, even his vaporeon, who _loves_ to go out in storms!"

Toan remembered that storm; it had swept into the ranchlands without much warning and had raged and raged for several days before it moved on. It had been one of the most stressful times Toan could remember on the ranch. His father had kept his pokémon close too. Toan looked at Jessie and said, "My dad did the same."

"I never feel truly at peace when my dad's pokémon aren't running around. I understand wanting to keep them close," Jessie touched Viola's pokéball reassuringly with her fingertips, "but it doesn't feel right . . . I don't know, am I making any sense?"

"Yeah, I get what you mean," Toan replied.

As they approached Jessie's parent's booth, Jessie drew to a halt and touched Toan's arm. "I really enjoyed myself tonight, Toan," she said, looking up at him through her lashes. "Can I see your phone for a second?"

Toan nodded and handed over his phone. Jessie quickly put her cell phone number in Toan's contacts and rang it.

"Now I've got your number too," Jessie smiled.

"I had a really good time too, Jessie," said Toan as he pocketed his phone again. Suddenly Jessie was on her toes and wrapped her arms around Toan's neck in a tight hug. She was gone before Toan fully clicked on to what had happened.

"I'll see you later, Toan. Text me sometime." Jessie darted off into the crowd, but before she disappeared she cast a cheeky grin over her shoulder at Toan.

Toan smiled and turned to walk back to his mother's jam booth, absently wondering where Felix had gotten to while Toan had been off with Jessie. _Maybe I'll text him_, Toan thought absently.

His mother was busy packing up the stall when Toan finally arrived back.

"Where have you been?" she asked, raising one eyebrow quizzically.

Toan shrugged. "Around."

Toby was sitting on a plastic chair, his head drooping tiredly into the palm of his hand. He wasn't going to be awake for much longer; it was already long past his usual bedtime.

"Well if you're going to be secretive, you can help me pack everything up. Dad's taking Nelly back to the jeep. He's keen to get back home."

Toan nodded and did as his mother bid. It wasn't long before he and his family were piled back into the jeep and driving back to the ranch.

As they were getting ready for bed, Toan didn't fail to notice his father was wearing his pokéball belt, with his three pokéballs safely attached.

* * *

Something smashed.

The sound jerked Toan awake with a wild gasp. In an instant he was out of bed and tugging the waistband of his boxers back into place. _What the heck was that?_ "Mum-" He called out, before strangling his voice into silence as a loud _crack_ echoed through the hall from downstairs.

Wishing like hell he had a pokémon, Toan quickly shrugged into the button up he had worn to the fair and grabbed his old baseball bat from his wardrobe. He hoped he didn't have to use it, but the hardwood handle served to ease his tension – somewhat. He pulled his bedroom door open, wincing at the creak and trod as lightly as he could through the hallway.

"Toan, what's going on?" A voice groggy with sleep asked from behind him.

Toan spun around, jumping violently at the sudden sound. His little brother was standing in his bedroom doorway in his pyjamas, rubbing sleep out of his eyes. "Toby," Toan hissed, lowering the bat and pressing a finger to his lips. "Go back to your room, okay. I'm just going to check downstairs."

"I heard something smash." Toby's eyes were wide.

"So did I." Toan glanced at the staircase, dark with shadows. "I'm serious, Tobe. Go back to your room. I'll come see you when I get back."

Maybe Toby picked up on the urgency in his voice, for as soon as Toan gestured at Toby's bedroom door; Toby turned around and half-ran back into his room. Toan winced at each footfall on the thin carpet. He hoped he was only worrying his brother for nought. He hoped one of his parents had just knocked something over on their way to the toilet.

He took the stairs one at a time, stepping carefully with his bat at the ready. He could hear muffled voices from downstairs. When he was halfway down, the sound of something smashing rang through the house again. Toan felt a jolt of adrenaline surge through his body and his heart beat furiously.

An eerily loud, whiney creak drifted through the house. Toan leaned out over the banister and peered in the direction the noise had come from. The front door was wide open. Moonlight streamed through the open door and illuminated the hallway.

_What the hell . . .?_ His dad always checked the locks before he went to bed. Always! He never forgot to do it.

_Splat_

Toan stepped in something sticky on the hardwood floor at the bottom of the stairs. _And wet_. He immediately stepped away, and his foot collided with something soft and furry. Toan bent down and reached out his hand, feeling for whatever it was. His hand touched sticky fur. Toan's mind was blank for a moment before everything suddenly _clicked_ in his head.

_Blood. _The thought filled his head and he unwillingly let out a strangled gasp. White haze clouded his vision as he stumbled back and landed hard on the bottom step. He could make out the small pink body and the slender tail ending in a tuft of fur in the shallow moonlight. It was his mother's skitty. His mother's skitty was dead!

Toan scrambled to his feet, his heart was in his throat now and he was drawing ragged, uneven breathes. Was this what that sickening crack had been?

_Three breathes, son. Nice and slow._ His father's voice from a time long gone suddenly fought its way through his head. Toan leaned against the staircase banister and breathed deeply.

_One._

_Two._

_Three._

He gripped the bat tightly, feeling his fingers go white and red from the pressure he was exerting on the bat. He stepped over the body of his mother's dead skitty, almost slipping in the wet blood, and walked slowly towards the living room. _What the FUCK is happening? Please, Toan, wake up, wake up, WAKE UP!_

No such luck.

As he walked into the living room, he was greeting by muffle shouts. Picture frames had been tossed onto the carpet with enough force to shatter the glass; out of the corner of his eye Toan could even see his mother's precious vase lying in pieces by the T.V. in the corner. He saw it all, but he only focused on one thing. His mother was tied to one of the wooden, straight-backed chairs from the kitchen. A strip of her night-shirt had been torn off and stuffed into her mouth as a gag. Minique's eyes were wild. She kept rocking in the chair, her eyes darting about wildly.

"Mum!" The name escaped Toan's mouth unbidden as he raced into the living room and fumbled for the gag.

"Toan!" his mother screamed as he pulled the gag out of her mouth. "He's here, he's-!"

The bat was abruptly pulled out of Toan's grasp, and a resounding _crack_ echoed. Toan was falling, suddenly incredibly light-headed. His elbow caught the corner of the coffee table as he fell and Toan cried out in sudden, blinding pain.

"Isn't that a stroke of luck." The voice somehow managed to pierce through the haze of pain clouding Toan's mind. "I'll thank you to be quiet, Minique, dear; we don't want your other son to wake up and come downstairs, do we?"

Toan realised that his mother had been screaming, but at the man's words, her voice died down and the man shoved the scrap of cloth back into her mouth.

"Now I trust you won't try to spit that out, or I might gag you with something else." The man's voice _oozed_.

Fury broke through the veil of pain. Toan gritted his teeth together and tried to push himself to his feet. Blood trickled down the back of his neck and his hair was matted with it. His left arm wobbled furiously as he put weight on it, and sharp spikes of fresh agony threatened to send him right back to the carpet. Something solid pressed down on his back.

"I don't think you should be getting up so soon," the man said, and pressed harder with Toan's bat. "You took a nasty knock. Look, there's blood everywhere!"

Toan's elbow gave out under the additional pressure, and he sank heavily back to the floor.

"There's a good boy."

With a silent snarl, Toan twisted around and glared at the man who was swinging his bat around with a sharp grin on his pointed face. With a start, Toan realised he recognised the man.

"I saw you at the fair!" Toan spat. "You were with Tyler Frey."

The man paused, the bat freezing in mid-motion. His thick, black eyebrows furrowed. "So there was someone in that tractor. I had a feeling. . . Tell me, boy, were you alone, or did you have a pretty little flower in there with you?"

_Jessie!_

Something must have shown on his face, because the man grinned and hit Toan's backside with the bat almost thoughtlessly."There was! Was it the Tully girl who was so brave the other night? Maybe I'll pay her a visit after I finish with you." The man licked his lips, and Toan felt a chill go through his spine.

"All right, come on, get up." The man jabbed Toan with the bat. His voice had changed from the silken, slick tone to one filled with authority. "Let's go meet the others."

"Fu-" Toan's head ran as the man knocked the bat into Toan's head wound. He felt like he was going to throw up. He could feel bile building with every wave of pain. The man grabbed Toan by his collar and pulled him to his feet. The end of the bat was pressed against his lower back.

"Walk, boy," the man hissed.

Toan took a step forward and almost staggered. If it wasn't for the man's iron grip on his shoulder, he would have fallen back to the ground. "What do you want?" Toan asked as the man pushed him out of the living room and towards the front door.

"Nothing, really," the man gave Toan a hefty shove with the bat.

"Then why-"

"Let's not get chatty, boy." The man lifted his foot and booted Toan through the front door and down the porch stairs. Toan landed heavily on his hands and knees on the gravel driveway. He could feel the skin on his knees and palms break and tear.

"What the hell are you doing, Ghast?"

Toan looked up to see Stephen Frey, the eldest of the Frey brothers, glaring at the man who had pushed Toan out of the house. Stephen Frey was known for keeping a cool head and often kept his younger brother – who was known for his quick temper – in check. If he was here, no doubt Tyler would be too.

A quick look around was all he needed. Tyler Frey was standing by the barn holding an old, double-barrelled shotgun. Fear gripped Toan's heart when he saw who Tyler was pointing the shotgun at. His father was sitting against the barn by the front door; blood covered his face from a large gash across his temple. Toan had never seen his father look so . . . helpless before.

"I told you to leave the kids alone." Stephen Frey gestured with a pokéball; fury and agitation covered his usually wooden face. His chest was heaving and his nostrils flared as he tried to contain his temper. The sight of the usually calm Frey only jammed the theoretical knife of this situation deeper.

"Relax, Stephen," the man named Ghast said with a shrug. "This one came downstairs, what did you expect me to do?" Ghast began swinging the bat around again.

Stephen grunted. "Let's hope there are no more problems tonight. _Idiot._" The last was muttered under his breath, but was still more than loud enough for Toan to hear. If he heard it, then he was sure that the psycho with the bat did as well.

"Your attitude is starting to annoy me, Frey," Ghast said. "It's not every day you get to take a family hostage. Embrace the experience."

"I'd prefer to get out of this without the police on our ass. Put the kid next to his dad. Tyler will make sure they don't do anything stupid." Stephen pointed towards his younger brother and his hostage by the barn.

Ghast grabbed Toan under the arm and half-carried, half-dragged him over to the barn. John looked up as Toan was pushed against the barn and slunk down to the driveway again. His gaze hardened at the blood covering Toan, and he glared at the man murderously. Toan realised that his father's hands were bound, and that his pokéball belt was empty.

_Where are his pokémon? Grey, Roam, I'd even be happy to see Ferret!_

"Are you badly hurt?" John muttered to Toan.

"I don't think so," Toan said back. This head and elbow began throbbing in tandem, mocking him. "What about you?"

"Aside from the gash on my head, I'm fine." His father's voice lowered even further. "Did you see Minique and Toby?"

"Toby's in his room. I told him to go back before I came downstairs. Mum's tied up in the living room."

John swore, earning himself a crack on the head with the barrel of Tyler's shotgun.

"Shut up!" Tyler said loudly, and waved the shotgun threateningly at the two of them. Most worryingly was Tyler's twitchy finger hovering over the shotgun's twin triggers.

John gritted his teeth and stayed silent.

"Come on, Tyler. I need your help." Stephen said as he tossed his pokéball to the ground. A ragged-looking camerupt emerged, stamping the ground and blowing plumes of smoke out of its nostrils and volcano-shaped humps.

The camerupt followed Stephen as he walked into the barn, Tyler right behind him.

"What do they want, Dad?" Toan asked after the Frey's and the camerupt disappeared into the barn. Ghast was muttering to himself by a trailer fixed to the back of the Frey's old truck, too far away to hear.

"I don't know," John's brow was furrowed. Beneath the blood trickling down his face, John's eyes were sharp and filled with thought. "None of this makes sense! They can't think they'll get away with-"

A sharp, frightened cry erupted from the barn. Light flashed through the open door in rapid bursts.

"Nelly!" John swore, and struggled to stand. Ghast was in front of them, Toan's bat pressed against John's forehead.

"Stay down, old man," Ghast chuckled. A wide smile decorated his pale, angular face.

The ampharos's cries tore into Toan's ears. Suddenly the flashing stopped, and Nelly let out one more piteous scream before silence fell one again.

Toan's heart skipped a beat. His gut was churning with nerves and barely contained fear.

"Nelly doesn't know how to fight!" John was shouting. "Leave her alone!"

The bat rose and fell, and John slumped to the side.

Tyler Frey walked back out of the barn, shotgun over his shoulder, fingering a cracked pokéball at his belt.

_Have they . . .? _Toan stared, wide eyed. Nelly was technically a wild pokémon, as all ranch pokémon were. They were registered with the Pokémon Corporation and trained as if they were trainer pokémon, but they had no pokéball. It wasn't unheard of for pokémon to be poached from ranches by unaware trainers or thieves.

Toan's fears were put to rest almost immediately when the camerupt backed out of the barn with Nelly draped over its back. Blood dripped from a nasty bump on Nelly's forehead. Then Stephen Frey emerged with the growlithe slung over one shoulder. It was knocked out. Toan _hoped_ it was knocked out.

"Light the barn up, Camerupt," Stephen Frey said after the camerupt tossed Nelly into the trailer.

The camerupt half-turned and opened its mouth wide. A jet of flame erupted from its maw and streaked through the open door into the barn. Small explosions sounded from inside as the fire reached the quad bike's gas tank, and soon the fire had spread and burned furiously on its own.

"We don't have much time now," Stephen Frey said, returning his camerupt. "Let's go."

"What about them?" Tyler Frey jerked his head at John and Toan. "They've seen us."

Stephen was silent.

"Easily fixed, friend," Ghast grinned. "One hard swing with this," he tapped the bat, "or you could fill them with buckshot. Either way, they won't be alive to talk about what happened here."

Toan started to shake.

"What about the woman and the other kid?" Tyler asked.

The man sighed. "Are you really not getting this? I'll take care of the woman. As for the kid, he can grow up an orphan for all I care. Or I'll go upstairs and kill him. It's probably a kinder fate."

"Do it." Stephen Frey said darkly, looking down. The night shadowed his face.

"Well, that's settled." Ghast swung the bat in a wide circle, before stepping in front of Toan. "Smile kid." He grinned widely, as if to demonstrate.

Suddenly John was on his feet. Ghast's eyes opened wide and he stumbled back as John ploughed into him, knocking him heavily to the ground. John kept moving; running towards the trailer before Ghast even hit the ground. Tyler Frey stared, dumbstruck, his shotgun still slung across his shoulder.

Toan took the opportunity to scramble away from the burning barn and stared wide eyed at his father as he sprinted past Tyler Frey.

"Tyler, stop him!" Stephen shouted as he raced around the truck and tried to stop John.

It was too late. John half dove into the trailer behind the unconscious Nelly and managed to fumble at something on the trailer floor. A pokéball soared through the trailer's bars and burst open in a flash of light.

Toan's heart surged when he saw Grey emerge from the pokéball. The mightyena's eyes narrowed, but the fire reflected in his yellow eyes seemed to burn with its own heat.

"Protect Toan, Grey!" John shouted as he emerged from the back of the trailer. He had kicked two other pokéballs from the trailer in front of him. His hands were still bound tightly behind his back; he must have kicked Grey's pokéball to get it to soar like it did.

Grey let out a piercing howl and looked at Tyler Frey and Ghast, who was just rising from the ground.

"Release your pokémon!" Ghast screamed at the Freys.

The shout came too late. As quick as a flash, Grey charged. His fangs were bared in snarl and a low rumble sounded loud in his throat.

Tyler Frey stumbled back, fear flashing in his eyes as Grey leapt for him, jaws snapping for his throat.

Ghast stepped forward. The bat swung.

A bone-chilling yelp of pain rang out and Grey tumbled to the ground, blood pouring out from the gash where the bat had collided with his head.

"Useless fool!" Ghast spat at Tyler Frey as he dropped the bat and snatched the shotgun from Tyler's nerveless fingers.

Toan didn't think his eyes could widen further. His legs felt like jelly. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and somehow he felt slower than he'd ever felt before. He watched, helplessly, as the man pointed the shotgun at Grey's twitching body and pulled one of the triggers.

The sound was deafening. Blood splattered, and Grey was still.

"NO!" Toan screamed, and he wasn't the only one. Tears had mixed with the blood on John's face, leaving pale trails down his cheeks. Toan had never seen his father look like that before.

John rushed forward, the pokéballs at his feet forgotten. Ghast raised the shogun again and pulled the second trigger.

Toan could feel tears form and fall and he watched his father get blown back by the spray of the shotgun and fall heavily to the ground.

Time caught up. And Toan ran.

"Extra shells!" Ghast demanded and held out his hand to Tyler Frey, who immediately began digging through his pockets. Toan sprinted past them._ It didn't happen. It couldn't have happened. Dad? Oh, fuck, DAD!_

Stephen Frey tried to grab him, but Toan knocked his arm away. His dad's pokéballs were close. He skidded across the gravel and stretched out for Roam and Ferret's pokéballs. His elbow burned and spasmed as it hit the driveway. _He can't be dead. He can't be!_

"Stop him!" Ghast had shoved Tyler Frey aside and was hurriedly snapping the shotgun open to load more shells.

Toan snatched up one of the pokéballs, pressed the button, and threw it. _Please be Roam. Please, please be Roam!_

The pokéball burst open and John's old blastoise emerged in a flash of light. Roam's scaly skin glittered in the light from the burning barn, drawing each eye towards him, as if his massive size and appearance wasn't enough. Even Ghast stopped loading the shotgun to stare.

Roam's eyes seemed to take in everything as he turned his head from side-to-side. He looked at the man and Tyler Frey, and then at the burning barn. And then he saw John. His mouth opened and a mighty roar of anguish echoed in the night. Gouts of water roared out of his cannons and droplets hit the ground heavier than the harshest rainstorm Toan had ever experiences.

The shout of the shotgun firing again tore through the air and a double dose of buckshot buried itself in Roam's shell. The blastoise didn't even seem to notice. It spun around, water still spurting, and glared murderously at Ghast.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" Stephen Frey shouted over Roam's roars.

Tyler Frey didn't need to be told twice. He darted around Roam and all but dove into the truck. Roam paid no attention to Tyler Frey, instead he opened his mouth and an icy blue ball began to form. The air became colder, and Toan's breath came out in misty gouts.

Roam roared again, but this time a beam of pure ice shot out from his mouth and streaked towards Ghast. As the beam tore across the ground, a jagged line of pure ice formed on the driveway, marking the beam's path.

The shotgun fell to the ground as Ghast dived and rolled out of the way. Before Roam could even redirect the beam, Ghast was sprinting past the blastoise's bulky shell and dove into the truck alongside Tyler Frey.

Stephen Frey accelerated and the truck surged forward. Toan had to snatch up Ferret's pokéball and dive out of the way to avoid being hit. The truck and trailer sped down the driveway, kicking up large clouds of dust and flicking stones everywhere as it went. Roam sent another Ice Beam the truck's way, but the truck turned sharply onto the road and the beam flew harmlessly by.

_Nelly's gone. Growlithe. _Toan picked himself off of the ground and sprinted towards his father. Roam's roars of fury and agitation pounded in his ears.

"Dad," Toan sobbed as he fell to his knees beside his father. John's eyes were closed and blood pooled around him, only to sink into the ground. Toan turned to Roam and shouted as loud as he could. His throat seemed to tear from the effort. "The barn, Roam, put out the fire!"

Roam's roars stopped and he looked at Toan for the barest instant before turned around and sending jet after jet at the burning barn. The roof had already collapsed in on itself, but flames still licked up the walls.

"What do I do, what do I do?" Toan said to himself furiously. Fresh blood pulsed out of John's chest. Toan pressed his button up against the worst of it and pressed down as hard as he dared. _Toby!_ _No, shit, I can't leave Dad! There's so much blood!_

"TOBY!" If it felt like he had torn his throat before, it was nothing compared to what he felt now. "Toby, I need you!"

One agonising minute passed before Toby appeared at the front door. Toan wished he never had to call Toby out of his room._ He shouldn't have to see this._ Blood covered Toby's foot and was smeared on his knees. He must have tripped on Minique's skitty just like Toan had before. Toby's eyes were as wide as dinner plates and great big tears were running down his cheeks.

"Toby, do you remember how to call the emergency department?" Toan asked desperately. They had drilled Toby on what to do if there was an emergency ever since he was six years old, but he had never had to put it into practice before. "Toby!"

Toby nodded slowly. "Is dad dead?"

_Is he dead? He can't be, not yet! _"No, Toby. That's why I need you to call the emergency number. Tell them to send everyone." How was he keeping his voice so calm? Panic was building and bubbling in his chest. _How am I not a blubbering mess?_

"Toan, I-" Toby began.

"Go, Toby!" Toan shouted. "Call the number! And stay inside, don't come back out! Go help Mum; she's in the living room."

Toby turned and ran back inside.

"I'm so sorry, Dad." Tears were flowing freely now. "I'm so sorry." The shirt was covered in blood; Toan could barely tell it was green anymore. "I should have – I should have. . ." He couldn't say it. He didn't even know what he was trying to say.

When the first Emergency Response Team teleported into driveway with a kadabra and a blissey, they had to pull Toan from his father before they were able to examine John.

They kept asking questions: what happened? Are you hurt? A second response team teleported into the driveway, then a third, and soon the driveway and house were filled with paramedics and police officers. Roam was sent back to his pokéball, while a team of squirtle darted about and put out the last of the fire. Grey's body was teleported away, Toan didn't know where. A team of paramedics quickly moved John onto a stretcher and he was teleported away too. Everything happened so quickly, to Toan it seemed like a blur.

"They're taking your father to Saffron Memorial Hospital." One of the paramedics said to Toan as she examined the wound on the back of his head. Toan didn't even remember asking the question.

"Is my dad going to be okay?" Toan asked.

The paramedic was silent.

* * *

Author's Note: This was kind of a hard chapter to write. I've never really written death before, not like this anyway. Drop a review; tell me what you thought of this chapter. Until next time!


	5. Chapter 5

_He gulped loudly, mentally cursing at noise. It seemed as though every sound, no matter how small, reached his ears like a parade of venusaur stomping through the hallway. Is this what it was like with all this adrenaline roaring through his body? He remembered that idle thought, but he couldn't think of anything else which went through his head as he crept down the stairs._

_He wielded his old bat out in front of him like a sword. He gripped the wooden handle tightly; all of his old coach's advice and lessons about holding the bat loosely was forgotten. His hands started to cramp._

_The stairway opened out and turned into the moon-shadowed hallway. The hooks from the rarely-used coat rack by the front door grew longer and larger as the shadows distorted their shapes across the hardwood floor._

_Splat._

_Toan's foot slipped in something wet as he trod down the final stair and onto the floor. He nearly dropped the bat as he grabbed the banister to stop from falling flat on his ass. And before he thought his gulp had been loud. . ._ _He looked down and saw the bottom of his foot covered in some dark liquid. It covered the patch of floor by the stairs too._ Blood, _he thought, stunned. It seemed like a lifetime before he managed to click on._

_A small lump lying in the middle of the blood puddle caught his eye. He reached out and touched the blood-matted fur. So much red stained the fur, Toan could barely see the pink patches where the blood had not touched._

_Toan stumbled back, his heart pounding furiously. The pokémon was dead; his mother's skitty was dead!_

At some point, Toan became aware of a tight grip on his hand.

For a while that was all he was truly aware of. His head was filled with fog and it refused to go away.

"Toby and I are going to Saffron Memorial to be with Dad." A voice floated into his head. He couldn't tell if it were real or not. It was a voice he had grown up with, he was sure of that – that, and the grip on his hand. "The doctors will call me as soon as you wake up and I'll try to come as soon as I can. I love you."

Toan tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids refused to budge; It felt like someone had superglued them shut. The effort made the fog in his head grow thicker . . . and thicker.

_His mother's eyes were wild, larger and more frightened than Toan had ever seen them. He had seen his mother worried before, and even scared – though she did well trying to hide it. He had never in his life seen her face look like this before._

_The vague hope that this had all been a terrible, terrible accident vanished like a pie in a snorlax._

_He rushed forward, heedless of the shattered glass on the carpet, and pulled the gag out of Minique's mouth. He didn't have time to ask a question, Minique's cry beat him to it._

_"He's here. He's behind you!"_

_Someone tore the bat from Toan's nerveless fingers and a resounding _smack_ on the back of Toan's head sent him to the glass-studded carpet._

A day had passed, maybe. He wasn't aware of time as he should be. Maybe a day hadn't passed at all; maybe he had only drifted off for a moment only to come back to this state of fuzzy awareness.

The grip on his hand was gone, and his head didn't feel as fuzzy as it did before. Time must have passed, right?

"I shouldn't have to tell you how important it is that we speak with him." Toan didn't recognise the voice.

"I understand that, Detective, but until he wakes up there's not a lot that I can do. He experienced extreme physical and emotional trauma last night, he needs time to recuperate."

Both people sounded brisk, both determined not to let the other interfere with their jobs. Toan could picture the two staring off at each other, sparks flying.

Eventually the detective spoke, "Call me when he wakes up."

"I have your number," the doctor replied.

The fog grew thick again and Toan drifted back into sleep. He thought for sure that he would be able to open his eyes that time.

_"Release your pokémon, you fools!"_ _Ghast screamed at the Frey brothers as Grey bent his forelegs and snarled. The mightyena's yellow eyes gleamed with murderous light._

_Tyler Frey nearly dropped his shotgun as he tore at the single pokéball at his belt. He wasn't fast enough; Toan knew how fast Grey could run._

_Grey barked and snapped his jaw as he pushed off the ground and streaked towards Tyler Frey. He blended into the darkness, looking more like a black blur than anything else. Grey leapt, paws extended and mouth wide open._

_Ghast stepped in front of Tyler Frey and swung Toan's bat._

_Bile rose in Toan's throat as a sickening _crack_ filled his ears. Grey collapsed to the ground with a yelp of pain. He twitched on the driveway, whimpering and whimpering, blood pouring from the deep gash where the bat had collided with his skull._

_"Bloody useless," Ghast spat at Tyler Frey as he dropped the bloody bat and snatched the shotgun away from Tyler. He pointed the shotgun at Grey's twitching body and pulled one of the twin triggers._

_A brief flash of light erupted from one of the barrels, followed almost instantly by a mighty _bang.

_Grey was still._

"I think he's waking up!"

"Someone get the nurse!"

The fog was still there, but Toan barely noticed it now. He twitched his eyelids and light flooded in. It took a mighty effort for him to fully open his eyes and see two blurry faces peering down at him.

"He looks out of it," one of the faces said with a grin. Toan would have recognised Felix's voice anywhere.

"So would you if you'd been asleep as long as he has," The other face retorted. "Hey, Toan, Dad's getting the nurse now."

If he was going to wake up to anything, Toan could think of worse things than Jessica Tully's face.

Suddenly Jessica and Felix were pushed away as thick-haired doctor with a friendly smile leaned over Toan and shone a small, but bright light into his left eye. "Hold still for a moment," the doctor said kindly, yet firmly. Toan recognised the voice from the doctor who had spoken to the detective however long ago.

Toan lay still and tried to not flinch as the light left his left eye and shone into his right.

"Your pupil response is normal," the doctor said cheerfully. "That's good. You gave the paramedics a bit of a scare the other night."

Toan grimaced and tried to prop himself up with his elbows. It was only then he realised that one of his arms was stuck in a splint and was elevated above his head.

"Easy now," the doctor said. He waited until Toan was lying down again before playing with a small remote attached to Toan's bed. He tapped one button a few times and the top half of Toan's bed rose until Toan was sitting up relatively straight. It felt odd with his arm still above his head, but he supposed it was better than lying down.

"You fractured your elbow," the doctor explained, "not badly, but we still needed to elevate it in that splint for a while. We'll see how it looks tomorrow and hopefully, if all goes well, we'll be able to put it in a sling."

Toan remembered the blinding pain he felt when his elbow collided with the side of the coffee table. He hadn't thought that it had broken though. "Is my dad . . .?" he couldn't say it. _Is my dad dead?_

The doctor seemed to know what Toan meant. His cheerful smile faltered. "He's alive, but critical. The paramedics took him to Saffron Memorial Hospital straight from your ranch. They got him into an operating room first thing."

"He's going to be okay, though, right?"

"I don't know, Toan," the doctor said grimly. "I wish I could tell you otherwise, but we're still waiting on word here. He was rushed into surgery as soon as paramedics got him to Saffron, but there were complications. He's scheduled for surgery again tonight, so I hope by tomorrow morning I'll have some good news for you."

Toan nodded and gripped the bed sheets tightly in his free fist. Ghast's pale, angular face seemed to stare at him. Toan drank in the details, especially Ghast's black eyes, which seemed stand out against his pale skin. _I'll remember_, he knew that without a doubt.

"I need to make a few calls," the doctor said, his smile magically back in place. "I'll send a nurse in soon, but for now I think your visitors are eager to talk to you."

He gestured at Felix who standing off to the side with a wide grin. He seemed to be twitching with impatience. Jessie and her father seemed more reserved.

"Okay," Toan managed a small smile. "Thanks."

The doctor nodded, before walking out of the room. Felix quickly replaced him, immediately rushing back to the place he had vacated when the doctor had arrived. His friend was positively _bubbling_.

"Crap, Toan!" Felix exclaimed. "Holy crap, are you all right?"

Toan snorted at the exuberance. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"The whole town's been in an uproar since the other night. No one knows what really happened, though. A couple of detectives from the city came yesterday morning and have been asking questions. You should see them, Toan. They look like they've come right out of a TV show!"

"I'm sure they'll be around soon." Toan said quietly. Felix's energy was usually infectious, but Toan didn't find it catching today. "How long have been asleep?"

"Like a day and a half," Felix supplied. "I came to see you yesterday, but you were out like a light. One of the nurses swatted me away and told me to come back tomorrow."

"That's because he never signed in at the front desk." Jessie joined the conversation, smiling a little shyly at Toan. Seeing the usually-confident ranch girl shy was a bit startling, but Toan thought he hid it well.

"Yeah, they didn't like me just walking in here." Felix chuckled. Jessie shot him a bemused look. "Hey, I put my name in their book like everyone else this time."

"A day and a half," Toan repeated dumbly. "That long?"

Jessie nodded. "We've all been really concerned about you and John. And your mother and brother too. They're in Saffron, with your dad. They're both fine."

"That's good." An image of his mother tied down on a chair suddenly flashed into his mind. She had looked so frightened; Toan had never seen that look on anyone before, much less his own mother. Then he remembered Toby's bloodstained feet and knees when he was forced to call his brother out to the front door. Guilt flooded into his chest and nestled around his heart. _There was no other way_, he told himself. Even so, he wished he could have let his brother hide in his room and not be potentially scarred by all the blood and death and. . . .

"Oh, Toan," Jessie said weakly and threw her arms around Toan's neck. "I'm so sorry."

Toan tried to reach around to hug her, before remembering that his arm was in a sling above his head. He awkwardly patted her back with his other arm. "It's okay, Jessie."

Jessie pulled away and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Toan was surprise to see her eyes wet with unshed tears.

Garret Tully stepped forward and put a hand on his daughter's shoulder. He towered over her; he was even taller than Felix! "Don't worry about the ranch while you and your dad are gone, Toan. The other ranches and I have agreed to help out. Jessie and I were there a few hours ago feeding the ponyta and making sure the mareep were well cared for."

Toan hadn't even thought about what would happen to the ranch. He tried to sit straighter, even though the sudden movement made his vision swim. "Were they all okay?"

Garret nodded. "They're as well as you can expect. The pokémon were all a bit nervy, but I think that's more because of all the people that have been in and out of your ranch since . . . well since the other night."

_Since my dad was shot, _Toan filled in the blank. "What's been happening there?"

"Well those two detectives from the city poked around your property for a while. I tried to speak with them while I was there, but they turned me away fairly quick. They looked like they knew what they were doing, I'll give them that."

"That's good, I guess." Toan frowned as a sudden thought wedged itself into his mind. "You said all the other ranches were chipping in to help?"

"Sure did," Garret replied.

"Even the Frey Ranch?"

Garret nodded, almost in wonderment. "I was amazed, myself. Arthur Frey put a good chunk of money in a fund for your ranch, to make sure things keep going for a while."

Toan shook his head. That couldn't be right. It couldn't be! "The Freys were the one who did this to us, Garret!" Toan said with an angry edge in his voice. "It was Stephen and Tyler Frey, and some other guy Jessie and I saw with Tyler last night."

Garret's face darkened, and Jessie gasped. Toan was sure he heard Felix swear venomously under his breath too.

"Are you sure, Toan?" Garret said.

"I'm sure. They didn't kill shoot my dad or kill any of the pokémon – the guy with them did that - but they were there! They took Nelly and my growlithe." Toan squeezed his sheets in his fist again. His fingers went white.

_When did I start calling the growlithe mine?_

Garret's brow furrowed in thought. "If that's the case then the ranch owners will want to know. I'm sure those detectives from the city will as well."

"What's wrong with those people, Dad?" Jessie exclaimed angrily. "Have they always been like this?"

Garret shrugged, looking just as angry as his daughter. In fact, for a moment they looked shockingly alike. "They've been a problem ever since Arthur Frey's wife died. She was his life, you know. When she died it was like Arthur stopped caring. He stopped caring about his ranch; stopped caring about his sons."

Toan stared. He had never heard about that before. Whenever he had asked his parents they would always sidestep the question or tell him that he was too young. Eventually Toan had stopped asking. He had no idea what he would be like if his own father suddenly stopped caring about him, maybe he'd be as screwed up as Stephen and Tyler Frey.

"Stephen was a teenager then, and it was tough enough on him. Tyler was only a kid, younger then Toby is now. None of you know how hard it was for him – I'm not excusing their actions," Garret said hastily, noting a rebellious look forming on Toan's face. "They deserve whatever they get for what they did to your family, Toan. I'm just saying there're always two sides to every story."

"I guess," Toan said grudgingly. His hatred for the Frey's still boiled though, and that wouldn't change just because he knew _why_ they were evil douchebags.

"Anyway, Toan," Garret said, "Jessie and I have work to take care of. Don't worry about your ranch, we've got it covered."

Toan thanked Garret, managing to plaster a grateful smile on his face.

After Jessica and Garret left, Felix pulled up a padded chair beside Toan's bed and managed to turn on the TV in the corner. They spent a half hour talking about the Pokémon League Tournament and arguing about different trainers before a hurried-looking nurse came and all but pushed Felix out of the room, saying that Toan needed his rest. She even turned the TV off when she left.

When Felix left, it all came flooding back. Toan gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, as soon as he did it was like all of his energy left his body and he quickly drifted back to sleep.

_"NO!" Toan screamed, and he wasn't the only one. Wet tears mixed in with the blood and dirt smeared across John's face, leaving pale trails down his cheeks._

_John cried out and rushed forward, the pokéballs at his feet forgotten. "Grey!"_

_He didn't make it five metres before Ghast raised the shotgun and pointed it at John. Toan screamed and shouted, but it was no use. Ghast pulled the trigger and John was blown back by the shotgun's spray. He hit the ground hard, blood pooling._

_Time caught up, and Toan ran._

* * *

He slept most of the day after the visit, only waking up when the sun was just hitting the horizon, sending orange light streaming through the window of his hospital room. A nurse came in and checked him over. She spent a few minutes fussing over the stitches in the back of his head and checking the splint on his shoulder. Toan sat in awkward silence as the nurse worked, even though she chattered away like they had known each other all their lives.

"Everything looks perfect," the nurse said with a bright smile. "If everything stays that way then it looks like we can let you go by tomorrow. Of course Doctor Fisher will need to examine you too and sign off on it, but I don't see any reason why you would need to stay any longer."

"What about this?" Toan gestured at his arm in the splint. "I don't have to get a cast or anything, do I?"

"I shouldn't think so. You'll need to have it in a sling for a few weeks, just so it heals up nicely."

"Okay." A sling wasn't too bad, Toan reasoned. It was better than having his arm stuck in a massive cast for weeks!

There was a brief knock on the door and Doctor Fisher walked in. A woman in a brown leather jacket walked in behind him, almost right on his heels. Doctor Fisher had his winning smile plastered on his face again. _Good old bedside manners._

"Are are we feeling this evening?" he asked.

The nurse answered for Toan before he could even draw breath. "Everything looks great, Doctor!"

Toan was sure the nurse's voice went up in pitch as she answered. If Doctor Fisher noticed he gave no sign.

"That's good, you should be able to go home tomorrow, Toan."

Somehow Toan doubted that he would actually be going home so soon. The ranch needed taking care of, and as grateful as he was that the other ranch owners were helping out, they had their own work to do. He needed to get back. On the other hand, he didn't want to face all of the blood.

Maybe his face darkened, because Doctor Fisher quickly stepped to the side and looked at the woman in the leather jacket. "We'll give you two some privacy." He gestured at the nurse and they left with reassuring smiles for Toan.

"I'm Detective Farron, from the Saffron City Police Department; I'm here to ask you some questions about what happened the night of August six."

Toan nodded, and watched Detective Farron take the seat Felix had been sitting in earlier that day. She swept her strawberry blonde ponytail over her shoulder and turned her big eyes on Toan. He wouldn't have picked her as a Detective, Felix was right; she definitely looked like she was out of a TV show.

"I spoke to Minique and Toby at Saffron Memorial this morning. Neither of them could tell me much about what happened. Minique told me that the man who attacked her took you outside."

"That's right," Toan said.

"Then what happened?"

He told Detective Farron how loud crashes from downstairs woke him and his brother up. He got up to that pale-faced bastard Ghast taking him hostage when Detective Farron finally asked a question.

"Did he say anything to you?"

"Not really." Toan thought back, most of that night had become a blur. "He just threatened me and my family."

"Did you recognise him at all?"

"I-"

There was another knock at the door. Detective Farron turned in her chair and frowned at the newcomer. She really didn't look pleased at being interrupted. It was strange to see such a _comely_ face look so severe.

"We're in the middle of an interview, Drake."

The man only shrugged and scratched the back of his thick black hair. "Talking with the mayor took longer than I thought it would." Drake's brown eyes turned on Toan. "I take it this is our ranch boy?"

Detective Farron sighed and said in a long-suffering tone, "Toan, this is my partner, Detective Drake."

"A pleasure." Detective Drake inclined his head at Toan. "I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your family. I want you to know that we'll do everything in our power to find the people who did this."

Detective Farron nodded in agreement and returned her full attention to Toan. "What happened when you were taken outside? Did the man have any accomplices?"

_Haven't they heard?_ Toan thought incredulously. "Yeah, Tyler and Stephen Frey were there. They were the ones who burned down the barn and took our ampharos and growlithe."

The two detectives exchanged looks. "It seems like the rumour wagon was right this time." Detective Drake said to his partner, who only nodded in agreement.

"They didn't shoot my dad, or his pokémon, that was the other guy." Ghast's face flickered through Toan's head. He tried to commit that face to memory. He would not forget!

"Other guy?" Detective Drake perched an eyebrow.

"A man who called himself Ghast was the one who shot John Stark," Detective Farron said.

"Ghast, huh; probably an alias." Detective Drake tapped his chin. "Have you seen him around the area before?" The question was an echo of Detective Farron's from before.

"I saw him at the Summer Fair," Toan said. "He was telling Tyler Frey that he should have killed Jessica Tully and I when we saved our mareep heard from a pack of growlithe."

"Was that the only other time?" Detective Farron asked.

"Yeah," Toan replied.

"I'll get some officers out there asking if anyone's noticed any suspicious people around lately." Detectiive Drake said, more to his partner than to Toan.

"We'll need a description." Detective Farron turned to Toan.

Toan described Ghast as well as best he could. It wasn't hard; he had all but imprinted the man's face into his mind. When he was finished he noticed that the two detectives' faces had darkened considerably. They exchanged a glance.

"Is this him?" Detective Farron held out her phone.

Toan had to lean forward to see the small picture on the screen. It was only a police sketch and not an actual photo, but Toan recognised the sunken eyes and the angular features on Ghast. "That's him!" Toan exclaimed.

Detective Farron pocketed her phone and exchanged another dark glance with Detective Drake.

"Who is he?" Toan asked.

Neither detective replied. After a moment of seemingly silent conversation between the two, Detective Farron turned back to Toan and resumed the interview. Detective Drake occasionally asked a question, but seemed to be deep in thought for the most part.

The tired fog was beginning to sink into Toan's head again when Detective Farron stood up. Full dark had fallen outside.

"We'll do our best to find justice for your family, Toan." She said as she shook his hand. Her grip was firm and sure, another departure from her girl-next-door appearance.

Detective Drake shook his hand too. "We'll find who did this."

The two detectives left, leaving Toan feeling a lot more troubled then he had been before.

* * *

Early the next morning, Toan was eating his breakfast with his free arm when Felix came bursting in through his hospital room door. Toan nearly choked on his spoon.

"The cops searched the Frey ranch last night!" Felix exclaimed.

Toan really did choke on the spoon this time. He coughed and sent the spoon flying over the tray and sending bits of saliva and chocolate pudding over the blankets. Toan didn't notice. "Did they find Nelly and Growlithe?"

Felix shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't think they did. I'm sure we would have heard about it otherwise."

A small bit of hope had planted itself in Toan's chest, but at that it wilted away.

"They didn't find Tyler or Stephen either, but they brought Arthur Frey in for questioning." Felix looked like he was twitching with energy.

_He must have known about it. He must have known! _"Have they got anything out of him?" Toan asked.

"I've no idea, hey."

"How'd you even find out?"

Felix was definitely twitching. He walked over to the window, then paced back to the door and back again as he spoke. "Word spread around town about the Frey's driving that pack of growlithe onto your land. They even found out that Tyler and Stephen Frey were involved with shooting your dad and taking some of your ranch pokémon. And I thought they were in an uproar yesterday, it's way worse now!"

Felix suddenly spun around. "There're even people from the newspapers running around interviewing everyone they can find. There's a few of them at reception now, but the staff here won't let them come and see you."

Toan sighed in relief. Reporters were the last people he wanted to talk to. "Did you talk to them?"

"Nah, I just snuck past them." Felix sniggered. "I heard that Garret Tully set his vaporeon on them when they cornered him at your ranch before."

Toan found himself grinning at the image. He didn't smile for long though, the idea he had been playing with ever since he had woken up popped its way into his head again.

"I can trust you, right, Felix?" Toan asked.

Felix froze and an uncharacteristic frown appeared on his face. "Of course you can, mate. You're my best friend."

"I need your help."

"With what?" Felix's mouth opened slightly. "Wait, you're not thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?"

"They shot my dad; they took mum hostage and killed some of our pokémon. They took Nelly and my growlithe away. What do you think they've done to them, Felix? You've seen how they treat their pokémon. They've had the Pokémon Protection Agency called to the ranch twice in the last year. Nelly's one of the gentlest pokémon I've ever seen. She wouldn't battle even if forced into a corner. What do you think they'll do to her?"

Toan could feel his voice crack; he stubbornly held back the tears he could feel begin to form.

"Toan, I. . . ."

"As soon as I get out of here I'm going to find them. I can't do it alone."

To his credit, Felix hesitated only the barest instant before nodding. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a miniaturised pokéball. "Bulbasaur and I will help, however we can."

Toan leant back in his bed. _I'm coming to find you Nelly. Growlithe._

* * *

**Next Chapter: **Toan had only seen the Frey ranch from a distance before. His father had warned him to stay away as soon as Toan was old enough to understand why. With Arthur Frey gone and the ranch seemingly deserted, Toan takes his chance. For good or ill, he can't leave the stolen pokémon in Frey hands.


End file.
